BREAKING OUT

During the yard time 3 days ago
My inner self finally managed to flee
From the prison heavily guarded
With the high walls of my yellowish
Skin and electrical wires
Made of my id nerve endings

However, once free wandering
In the endless desert nearby, I
Felt like a gold fish jumping out of
The glass water jug: shall I return
To my cell and continue my chained life
Or die a free death in the wild open?

HISTORY REVIEWED: THE SECRET OF MONGOLIAN EMPIRE

As killing Mongolians swept
Both China and Russia
Form East Asia to West Europe
They moved swiftly on an animal
No bigger than a stubborn donkey
A 4-legged creature so holy to them
They had dozens of ways to refer to it
(like bor, har, khongor, or tsagaan)
Indirectly as we address our emperors
Kings, queens as your majesty, but they
Were never impious enough
To invent a proper noun or
To give it a proper name

No, unlike the car that has carried the white peril
Even to Mars, the horse had no name in the heart
Of yellow peril

Yuan Changming, 8-time Pushcart nominee and author of Mindscaping (2014) and Landscaping (2013), is the world's most widely published poetry author who speaks Mandarin but writes English. Tutoring and co-editing Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver, Changming has poetry appearing in 949 literary publications across 30 countries, including Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline, Cincinnati Review and Threepenny Review.