Directory of Destines | Changming Yuan

North:     after the storm, all dust hung up
    in the crowded air, with his human face
    frozen into a dot of dust
    and a rising speckle of dust
    melted into his face
    to avoid this cold climate
    of his antarctic dream
    he relocated his naked soul
    at the dawn of summer

South:    like a raindrop on a small lotus leaf
    unable to find the spot
    to settle itself down
    in an early autumn shower
    my little canoe drifts around
near the horizon
    beyond the bare bay

Center:    deep from the thick forest
    a bird’s call echoes
    from ring to ring within each tree
hardly perceivable
    before it suddenly
    dies off into the closet
    of a noisy human mind

West:    not unlike a giddy goat
    wandering among the ruins
    of a long lost civilization
    you keep searching in the central park
    a way out of the tall weeds
    as nature makes new york
    into a mummy blue

East:    in her beehive-like room
    so small that a yawning stretch
    would readily awaken
the whole apartment building
    she draws a picture on the wall
    of a tremendous tree that keeps growing
    until it shoots up
    from the cemented roof     

***

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 17 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 literary outlets across 49  countries. A poetry judge for Canada’s 2021 National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022, with his first (hybrid) novel Mabakoola: Paradise Regained forthcoming in 2025.