An Online Literary Journal for Poetry and Flash

Tag: language

Heartfelt: A Bilinguacultural Poem

Poetry by Yuan Changming

感:/gan/ perception takes place 

        when an ax breaks something on the heart

闷:  /men/ depressed whenever your heart is

        shut behind a door

忌:/ji/ jealousy implies 

         there being one’s self only in the heart

悲:/bei/ sorrow comes 

         from the negation of the heart

惑:/huo/ confusion occurs 

       when there are too many an ‘or’ over the heart

忠:/zhong/ loyalty remains 

       as long as the heart is kept right at the center

恥:/chi/ shame is the feel 

       you get when your ear conflicts with your heart 

怒: /nu/ anger influxes when slavery 

      rises from above the heart

愁: /chou/ worry thickens as autumn 

     sits high on your heart

忍:/ren/ to tolerate is to bear a knife

      straightly above your heart

忘: /wang/ forgetting happens 

      when there’s death on heart

意: /yi/ meaning is defined as

      a sound over the heart

思: /si/ thought takes place 

      within the field of heart

恩: /en/ kindness is 

      a reliance on the heart


Yuan Changming hails with Allen Yuan from poetrypacific.blogspot.ca. Credits include 12 Pushcart nominations & chapbooks (most recently LIMERENCE) besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), Poetry Daily & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1929 others. Yuan served on the jury and was nominated for Canada’s National Magazine (poetry category).

In the Department Store

Poetry by Juanita Rey

Don’t be put off
by brown eyes, brown face,
and the times my tongue stumbles,
flips an English phrase backward.

I am new here
and, though my colors won’t change,
words will one day come out of my mouth
without a detour via the islands.

I wish to buy this dress.
It matches my olive skin.
And I have a credit card in my purse,
ID to prove it belongs to me.

Yes, I expect assumptions, suspicions,
from those behind department store counters.
But I’m looking in a full-length mirror.
I have myself convinced.


Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has been in this country five years. Her work has been published in Pennsylvania English, Opiate Journal, Petrichor Machine and Porter Gulch Review.

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