A Love-Thought: for Qi Hong
This yearning burns my marrows into itchy bubbles
Till… my innermost being evaporates
With the hot air of feel
As stupor overwhelms me
As if hemlock I have drunk
Or meditation that has carried me far away
While my thought sails with the wind
Like a ferry boat left empty
Swinging by itself in an evening storm
The Lawn Looks Lush: for Qi Hong
The lawn looks lush & fresh after last
Night’s rain as he imagines her going to bed
Across the Pacific. He browses avidly online
Mostly in his mother tongue, imagining her sleeping
Against another hot & humid night in Zhuhai. He reads
Poems sent to him, imagines how she would touches his big
Forehead like a wanton when they meet. He does stretching
Exercise in front of his tall window, imagining her hair falling
Like autumn leaves in his neighborhood. He eats wudong noodles
For lunch, imagining the hometown dishes she will cook for him alone
He goes to pee after taking his nap, imagines how she may rise to greet
The morning glows, imagining him getting lost in his imaginations about her
Whale-Drawing; for Qi Hong
He sent her a photo of a whale splashing back
Into the waves of the Pacific, asking her to draw
A picture to use as his wechat head image. &
For a long time she had no idea about how
A whale’s call could reach as far as a thousand
Miles, even beyond a whole continent, but
Only to be heard & understood by a fellow
Whale at 52 hertz, much less about how its tail
Looks like ‘Y’, the letter his name begins with, &
The title of the best poem
He has ever written
Until he tells her how he has been a human-whale
Swimming lonely against the currents of life, &
How she’d better portray him as Mobi Dick’s relative
Returning to the wild of the sea, with her pencils, in
Her eyes & heart, & how to avoid copyright issues
Returning to Hometown: for Qi Hong
1/ Jinzhou, October 7: an Episodic Sonnet
After celebrating your father’s birthday, you
Went out of your way to see my mother in
Jinzhou as my shadow wife, rather than in
Any other dubious capacity. Though you
Stayed there for 15 minutes only, you left a
Handsome red envelope containing all the
Filialness of a Confucian son on my behalf
Indeed, I may not survive the Pandemic, nor
Might she hold long enough for me to cross
The Pacific again, but your ad hoc visit gave
Her the best comfort from a daughter-in-law
Yes, she felt sorry she did not take a photo with
You, but I assured her to commemorate the
Meeting in a foreign language as she wished
2/ Zhuhai, October 8: a Lover’s Stone
No, no, no, you should not have had a thief’s
Conscience when you went to see my mother
On my behalf, for a heart-stealer is no thief
In the first place
As for the gift of a big stamp
Jade, it was given not to you alone, but to both
Of us, which you can cut into two, one to
Carve into an artist’s seal for you, the other
A poet’s signature for me. More important
From the same piece of jade, they can produce
Gold-like artworks, if used together
Like a philosopher’s stone
Atmosphere for the Recovery: for Qi Hong
1/ In the Climate
Longing of love is a climate of heart
A definition by degrees
Warmth sweating into serenity
Lines of thought bloated into starkness
As if our whole worlds have been woven
Into the one & same artwork
2/ Empty Your Lungs
Exhale hard
Exhale every bit
Of darkness
In its gaseous state
Like the malignant cell
In your lungs
Until your feel is burning with desires
For a fulfillment of lighted air, then
You will feel fresh & lighted
As if gaining a new birth inside out
For Qi Hong: Setting off Once Again
How come I seldom dream, you once complain
But before returning to Songzi, where we grew
Up together, you did have one, & one in which
You run after me to catch a last bus at twilight
You ask me to interpret this dream, hopefully
Like a fortune teller or Freudian psychologist
& all I have to say is it is an auspicious one
For any fast moving vehicle in a dream means
A solid progress in life. Given the way I led you
Closely hand in hand, we’re meant not only to join
Truth in a Platonic relationship, but as a true
Couple eager to get onto the bus to happiness
Towards Reunion: a Periodic Sentence for Qi Hong
At a fairyfly-like moment
On a bushy corner of nature
Preferably under a tall pine tree
In Mayuehe, our mecca or the hilly village
Adjacent closely to the bank of the Yangtze River
With myriad tongues from my hungry innermost being
Each eager to reach deep into your heart, where my soul’s
Fingers could caress every single synapse of your feminine feel
Between the warmth & tenderness of love, across the Pacific & the Pandemic
I’ll join you