Three Poems by Changming Yuan

Another Difference
By Changming Yuan

Listen, the TV guys are now
Talking about Iranians, North Koreans
Russians, even Chinese
As if they were not barbarians
As if they were not demons

So don’t say again
There is no progress in our American civilization

Worldly Affairs (1): The Bare Truth about USA
By Changming Yuan

You are truly the world’s greatest country ever
[Because] you are the only superpower in time
[Because] you can print as much money as you want
[Because] you are ready to hit anyone you are sure to win
[Because] you have the hardest fist and the longest arms
[Because] you have all the smartest people on the earth
[because] you offer the most attractive beneficial packages to new comers
[Because] your sociopolitical system is the most appealing to the mind
[Because] your founding fathers were the best designers of human society
[Because] your designers were inspired by humanity’s noblest ideals
[Because] those ideals were developed out of suffering, injustice and slavery
Which you had brought from the dark age, the darkest part of the world

Worldly Affairs (6): Today’s Special
By Changming Yuan

Appetite:
North Korean pickle soup
Iranian hard nuts
Venezuelan sour coffee

Main Courses:
American democracy steamed with socialism
Chinese communism fried with free market

Deserts:
Sushi with Oettinger
Curry with Brigadeiros

Fortune Cookie Slip Reads: Libya

Changming Yuan, author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Politics and Poetics (2009), is a three-time Pushcart nominee who grew up in rural China and published several books before moving to Canada. Currently Yuan teaches in Vancouver and has poetry appearing in Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Exquisite Corpse, London Magazine and more than 350 other literary journals/anthologies worldwide.