Self-Surviving Strategy: Were I Ever Absent

            All human d stances
                        Would be d_ stances
Were I absent
            Noth ng
                    Could hold together even as a word
Were I absent
            Ex stence
                     Would break right after an ex
Were I absent
            L fe
                  Might turn out no more than a typo
Were I absent
            T me
                  Would stop moving towards me
Were I absent
            H story
                   Would become a h(ushed ?) story

I = Human: A Bilinguacultural Poem

I: The Connotations of I vs. 我

The first person singular pronoun, or this very
Writing subject in English is I , an only-letter
Word, standing straight like a pole, always
Capitalized, but in Chinese, it is written with
Lucky seven strokes as 我 , with at least 108
Variations, all of which can be the object case
At the same time.
                 Originally, it’s formed from
The character 找, meaning ‘pursuing’, with one
Stroke added on the top, which may well stand for
Anything you would like to have, such as money
Power, fame, sex, food, or nothing if you prove
Yourself to be a Buddhist practitioner inside out

II: The Denotations of Human and 人

Since I am a direct descendant of Homo Erectus, let me
Stand straight as a human/人, rather than kneel down

When two humans walk side by side, why to coerce one
Into obeying the other like a slave fated to follow/从?

Since three humans can live together, do we really need
A leader or ruler on top of us all as a group/众?

Given all the freedom I was born with, why
Just why cage me within walls like a prisoner/囚？

Seven East Idioms Reviewed

I: hu jia hu wei [狐假虎威]

All the animals of the jungle
Flee in fright from the little fox
As it carefully stalks behind
In the tiger’s shadow

II: fei ying fei sheng [吠影吠声]

A dog begins to bark at the sight
Of a shadow that seems shivering
Then all the dogs in the neighborhood
Jumped into a chorus like crazy

III: shu yu jing er feng bu zhi [树欲静而风不止]

The oak tree longs to stand still
Or sit in deep meditation
Yet the wind would never stop
Trying to uproot or remove it

V: sai weng shi ma [塞翁失马]

On a snowy evening a poor old frontier tribesman
Lost his horse, the only means of living he had
While everybody still felt sorry for him a week later
The horse returned home with another one wild

VI: han dan xue bu [邯郸学步]

In their fondest hope to walk as gracefully as handsomely as the residents of Handan
People swarm in from every part of the country to learn and practice the ‘capital steps’
But many have failed to learn the new steps while others forgot their old ways
So they all have to crawl back on their fours to where they originally came from

VII: ye gong hao long [叶公好龙]

Instead of God, Money, Computer, Sex or Art, Mr Ye believes in Dragon only
He loves the legendary animal so much so that he paints it on every surface he can find
Deeply moved by his devoted passion, a real dragon comes down to visit him
But no sooner has he seen its face than he jumps to flee, with his pants all wet with fright