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Fall/Winter 2017



Yuan Changming

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO BESIDES JIUJIE?

You cut meat with sharp knives
            We poke grasses with bamboo sticks

            You punch others with hard fists
We dance around you with taichi gestures

            Your men fuck around everywhere outside your households
Our women lay babies right in your living rooms

            You colonize every city with an English syntax
We decorate each street with Chinese signboards

            You deploy aircraft carriers near our waters and coasts
We marry girls to your princes and paupers

You enjoy setting fires and blowing winds along our long walls
            We have Chinese stomachs to digest all insults and injuries

You try every way to overthrow our government
            We sell every artifact to help your people survive

            You borrow money from us to build more weapons
We work hard to make more money for your banks


Yuan Changming, nine-time Pushcart and one-time Best of Net nominee, holds a PhD in English and currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver; credits include Best Canadian Poetry, Best New Poems Online, Threepenny Review and 1289 others across 39 countries. 

 


 

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