2 Poems

Winter Wait

With their most tender touches, snowflakes

Have painted the whole night white—

Including the darkest corner, carpeting,

                Even within a forgotten dream

Except the plum tree, standing alone there

            Under the eastern sky, whose

Flowers are blooming boldly against

The entire season, more vibrant than blood

I/我, U/你 & E/伊: a Modest Proposal

As classic Chinese suggests, we can

Reasonably attain linguistic equality

In English as long as we all agree

To use I, still for the first person singular

But U for the second, &

E for the third

All single-lettered

All capitalized

All sexes inclusive

Either case applicable, subject or object

& all equal in creation as

In speech acts

So, say after I:

I Love U

U love E

E loves us all

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Credits include 15 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 2 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2079 other publications across 51 countries. Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022.