Two Poems

Poet and Critic

Poet strikes a match

Light a cigar

Instantly he illuminates the room

Critic sits quietly

Her lit eyes

In the light 

Observe the space

When fire goes out

In cigar's scent 

She analyzes light and dark

Poet and critic breathe together 

Poet takes in a breath 

Exhale again

Critic exhales

Breathe in again

Not exhale or inhale at the same time

Then they toast together

The glasses of whiskey are always

Either one higher 

Or one lower

No holding glasses at the same height

So he says

“We belong to two worlds”

And she adds

“The two worlds are in the expanding universe”

They cooperate well. 

 Poet reads newspaper 

And takes a long walk during the day

He keeps thinking the whole night

No one knows when he writes 

Critic thinks during the day

And reads the whole night

No one knows when she sleeps

One day the critic chatted with the poet

The critic asked

"Do you have any plan for new works lately?"

The poet said

“This is an unprecedented blank period in my life”

But it doesn't take long before

The poet releases a collection of poems

Entitled Blank

And the critic releases a book

Entitled On Blank’s Darkness

Tomorrow Here

When time breaths in

A day begins

Humans exhale 

A long breath

A poem begins

A line takes in air

Mimic the world

Word is

The air or

The images 

Conjure up 

The images between lines

Visible thickness or thinness

Overlapped

Loud & low pitches 

Like empty streets after lockdown  

Dichotomous trunks in April

Exhale visibilities 

The price rises

and the tide falls

Foam likes exhaling

       and buying-in like inhaling

The moon is full

but humans are isolated

Sages can not hold breathe forever

  and pipes can not emit smog forever 

The world is suffocated

       and so is hegemony

Listen to the silence you see

and gaze at the blank you hear

River is frozen

        but fish swims still 

Between the keys

         tones are transforming 

In the mid

Of exhalation 

A long breath

         A long sleep 

A dream

needs air and act

When time exhales

a day ends here 

Not far

time breathes in 

So does hope

Yi-Feng is an English-Chinese bilingual writer, scholar, translator, and associate professor at Foreign Studies College, Northeastern University. Her research interests include English and American poetry and American literature. She has published more than 20 academic papers. Her English poems were published in journals in the United States and Hong Kong, such as The Penn Review, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Waymark Literary Magazine, and so on. She published poetry translation works in China and abroad, and her Chinese poetry has been published in China and online. She was awarded the Bronze Prize in a Global Chinese Poetry competition in 2017.