the great american yellow poem

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.

Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

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.

Frances Chung

2000

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?

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

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.

Frances Chung

2000

Poems

the great american yellow poem

More by this poet

Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

Page 22 / oh lucky me

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

Poems

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the great american yellow poem

More by this poet

Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

Page 22 / oh lucky me

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

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