ZHU XIAO DI
Pronouns
I’ve watched you my whole life
You never follow my expectations
Surprising me is your fun
Absorbing the results is my fate
He behaves as if he doesn’t know me
Always doing what he wants
Never considering my feelings
Except when he needs my condolence
You don’t need to worry about him
He’ll grow out of himself
Becoming whoever he wants to be
Or whom he must be nevertheless
I’m not talking about anyone else
But myself and only myself
Only the pronouns changed
It fooled you and me and him too
Zhu Xiao Di, author of Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China (memoir), Tales of Judge Dee (novel), Leisure Thoughts on Idle Books (essays in Chinese), and poems published in journals based in the U.S., Singapore, U.K., and Canada. (Pronouns was previously published in Eratio on 2/26/2024)
It's not easy getting a book or pamphlet accepted for review these days. So in addition to the regular review section, the One Poem Review feature will allow more poets' to reach a wider audience - one poem featured from a new book/pamphlet along with a cover JPG and a link to the publisher's website. Contact the editor if you have released a book/pamphlet in the last twelve months or expect to have one published. Details here
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