John Yau Poems

It is said, the past
sticks to the present

like glue,
...

ilm was rumored to have disintegrated, but that was not the case. A copy of it existed in the library of the small town where the director had been born and where he was last seen entering a theater that has become a small but enduring monument to his artistry.
...

It had to be from someone whose grandparents were born in Shanghai
not the city's greatest citizens, but certainly among the sober ones
to make their small now eroded mark
...

It does not do you like it
Imperfect copy's forgery
Posts its vermillion decree
These anointed mistakes
...

Or is it
a poor trait

I am a
parasite
...

There are rooftops
made of cloud remnants

gathered by a trader
dabbling in car parts and burlap
...

A blue and green city, with the sun rising behind it, just not swiftly enough
Don't worry about being perfect. Just make sure you have some juice left in the pump

I have many other remedies on hand, not just history's bags of sumptuous soot
Hello, I am beauty's representative; I work in the self-improvement sector
...

You grow up hearing two languages. Neither fits your fits
Your mother informs you "moon" means "window to another world."

You begin to hear words mourn the sounds buried inside their mouths
A row of yellow windows and a painting of them
...

(after Carlos Drummond de Andrade)

Don't write poems
about yourself.
...

1.
They say we should write about our misery
soaked selves, parade our inadequacies
before all, pad about in cracked slippers
Why speak about other things when you cannot mean
...