Yuan Changming

MESSAGING

Listen to the audio version.

Forward this message
So that someday

It might reach
Another universe

Though in this valley where messages flood
Rivers overflow

Beyond both banks
The text is changing

Colonizing or being colonized
Is more of a new syntax

* * *

THE MASTER MISTAKE

Listen to the audio version.

Just as your authentic being was actually
Nothing but a sperm that had traveled astray
So the only child you have was accidently
Switched by the midwife without even herself
Knowing the truth; by logic extension

The Ikea bed in which you have been dreaming
Was delivered to you in the wrong size, while
The flight ticket issued always has your name misspelt
Furthermore, your primary id number has remained
As confused as your sense of reality is confounded

In an older sense, Eva meant to eat an onion instead of
The apple. Adam was created out of the wrong material
And each unique being is but an exception to the rule
Yes, the whole human world is composed of errors, which
                  Is the only truth, the entire truth of this universe

 

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan and hosts Happy Yangsheng in Vancouver; credits include ten Pushcart & three Best of the Net nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline, Threepenny Review, Wordgathering and 1,409 others across 41 countries.