the great american yellow poem

Frances Chung

1950 –

1990

she heard tales about saving grapefruit skins for cooking
she grew bright under the neon dragon of Chinatown
she made saffron curry rice for friends
she attended a barbecue in Amarillo, Texas
she stepped around yellow piss in snow
she cut herself on a Hawaiian pineapple
she learned to name forsythia where it grew
visions of ochre and citronella eluded her

From Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple by Frances Chung, published by Wesleyan University Press. Copyright © 2000 by the estate of Frances Chung. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved.

oh lucky me I am of some use I am of some inspiration to the two men across the lunchcounter I remind them of the last Chinese restaurant they took their family to did you know that Chinese food was delicious?

Sitting across from me on the bus a Chinese couple and their young son. The wife is not accustomed to riding in automobiles so she feels nauseous and uncomfortable. She cups her hand over her mouth as if to vomit. Finally, she opens her pocketbook to fish out pieces of coconut candy, offering one to her husband and son wordlessly. They are headed for Chinatown with shopping bags of groceries. They do not speak much to each other and when they do, they speak a different dialect. The scene is reenacted endless times with the stage sometimes shifting to the subway.

Riding the subway is an adventure especially if you cannot read the signs. One gets lost. One becomes anxious and does not know whether to get off when the other Chinese person in your car does. (Your crazy logic tells you that the both of you must be headed for the same stop.) One woman has discovered the secret of one-to-one correspondence. She keeps the right amount of pennies in one pocket and upon arriving in each new station along the way she shifts one penny to her other pocket. When all the pennies in the first pocket have disappeared, she knows that she is home.

Poems

the great american yellow poem

More by this poet

Page 22 / oh lucky me

Untitled [Sitting across from me on the bus a Chinese]

Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

Poems

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the great american yellow poem

More by this poet

Page 22 / oh lucky me

Untitled [Sitting across from me on the bus a Chinese]

Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

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