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Two Poems
by Yuan Changming
Autumn Twilight
All the flaring of the dayDissipates, leaving cracks
For waves of winds
To sweep in a clear-cut night
✦✦✦Four Frogs
For the past half century, I have never seen
A single frog in this city, not even in the whole country
But there are four big-mouthed frogs leaping around
Afar in a ricefield of my native village, four frogs
Squatting under the rotten bridge on the way leading
To an unknown town, four frogs playing on a big
Lotus leaf in my heart, four frogs calling constantly
From the dark pages of history invisible at midnight
Four frogs meditating under a puti tree transplanted
In a nature park, four frogs swimming into a fish net
Like bloated tadpoles, the same four frogs whose
Monotoned songs resonate aloud in different tongues
With different pitches, yes, the four frogs still there