Linguistic Leanings: a X-Cultural Poem

1/ Feminism vs Patriarchy

In Chinese, 妇人 (woman) is a girl who’s overthrown
A mountain, & 夫人 (madam) refers to a human that’s
Broken open the sky
                                                             While in English
Woman implies her as the wo of man, & madam is
Nobody but an other representation of male or adam
 

2/ Getting Along towards the Same End

In Chinese, 朋友, 恋人, & 爱人 are all
12-stroked characters, just as their counter-
Parts friend, couple, & spouse are 6-lettered
Words in the imperial vocabulary of English

Though they are all underlined with human

Love and loyalty, the former entails twice
As much input or effort of the heart
As the latter to maintain a disparately
Similar humane relationship as a speech act

Love Lost & Regained: for Helena Qi Hong

1/ A Rambling Sentence for Love Lost

How I sometimes wonder
Whether it is because you wear
Your years so well or because the years
Wear you so well that I fell in mad love with
You after as long as 42 years of separation without
Knowing each other’s whereabouts, again at first sight
With the whole Pacific Ocean between our shortening arms

2/ A Periodic Sentence for Love Regained

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