Affection: A Bilingualcultural Poem

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

Yuan Changming started to learn the English alphabet at age nineteen and authored monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include Pushcart nominations and appearances in the Best Canadian Poetry & BestNewPoemsOnline, among others. Recently, Yuan published a Chinese poetry collection 《袁昌明诗选》(Selected Poems of Yuan Changming).