Alan Yenming Fang

Actually, I will

Break from tradition. sing a truncated alphabet song which really is a

Poem concerned with romanization and thus, the county of Liqian, its

Mythical Roman legions. having lost the battle, born in the land where my

Father will die if he’s unlucky, I am stuck moving text around a Word

Document and imagining my death being pushed in front of a moving

Train. I still ride the subway every day; in staying alive, we revise our

Notions of what risks are worth taking. for example, when my plane

Lands in Hong Kong, I am beset by fantasies of my life

Grinded into dust under the heel of a jackboot. when my mother

Kneels on the top step of our staircase and says what I write might become

Hazardous, not having chosen a side, I brush off her concern. yet, my lower

Jaw goes aphasic if I try ordering food in my original tongue. legend goes,

Qin Shi Huang’s tomb flowed with rivers of mercury, a toxic country

Xeroxed, in one copy, I’m yellow peril, and the other, hanjian—western dog in

Zugzwang, waiting to be saved, stuck praying at the altar to the

Czar of money, of milk tea and full bellies, of good liquor and clean

Sneakers. used to excess, my mouth rounds a syllable while my mind

Roams from this distant land to another. what I mean is the bridge from here to

Zhuhai, all the workers who died, trapped between destinations, watching the sea

Change beneath them before falling. some long-ended war dictates how we

Should live our lives. a war not-yet-fought decides the language I’ll use to beg

You, my dastardly captor—you imperialist dreamboat, you

                                                               national mythmaker, merchant of

Wastewater and doubt—to beg you for anything at all to drink.

From Issue 46, Spring 2022 / First online publication June 18, 2024

Alan Yenming Fang hails from New York City and his work has appeared in Blackbird, AAWW’s The Margins, The Offing, sidereal magazine, and elsewhere. He was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s Emerging Poet Prize (2020). He holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and is a current MFA candidate at New York University.