Yuan Changming
It all began with this chip
A chip broken off a digitalized bone
See? This brown stuff clustered
Around its rim is not rust
Nor is it thick human blood
Newly dried up; rather
It is red spirits, so condensed
They need a longer time
To shake themselves off
And fly into the air, not unlike
All the evils and devils
Locked inside the Pandora’s Box
***
Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include Pushcart nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry and BestNewPoemsOnline, among others.