A Poem by Changming Yuan

Directory of Destinies

 

Monday

            -Monday’s child is fair of face

Beginning of endless beginnings

When we start running between

Sun shine and electric light, caring

No more about the moon on moon’s day 

 

Tuesday

            -Tuesday’s child is full of grace

Under Tiw’s rule, every law is

Established to stage war upon

The unlucky, who keep setting

Fires to avoid miss fortunes

 

Wednesday

            -Wednesday’s child is full of woe

Right in the middle of laboring

Even god of mercury turns green

As it persists in fasting

Far beyond the hump

 

Thursday

            -Thursday’s child has far to go

God of thunder, man of wonder

We will continue despite hunger

Until we cannot go any farther

Or uphold our spirits together

 

Friday

            -Friday’s child is loving and giving

POETS day, TGIF, Day of Venus

Unlucky for those trying to catch

A few fish in the open sea, but lucky 

For whoever is swimming ashore

 

Saturday

            -Saturday’s child works hard for a living

Though confined to their earthy coffins

All vampires are eager to go hunting

Both within the nightmares of mad dogs

And outside the shrinking orbit of Saturn

 

Sunday

            - The child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

East or west

All for a rest

When wanderers doze off in the sky

Meditators wake up to a distant cry

 

 

 

Changming Yuan, 5-time Pushcart nominee and author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Landscaping (2013), grew up in rural China and currently works as an English tutor in Vancouver, where he co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan (Poetry subs welcome at editors.pp@gmail.com). Recently interviewed by PANK, Yuan has poetry appear in Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Exquisite Corpse, London Magazine, Threepenny Review and 739 others across 28 countries.