3 Poems by H C Lee (Peter)

Traveller’s diary
(On Zhang Daqian’s Achensee Lake, 1968)

The grave foliage in the neighbourhood
of such forlorn valley grows as the cold
black ink branches out on the absorbent silk:
The darkened veins of a breathless body.
Moist in the air bridges the jade-green
storm discharged from the massive
blue in heaven. The attack is almost
noiseless. You face the saturated gust
brushing against the patient loch.
Waves wrinkle lands into part of the
accidental clutter. The straying foam
oozes contagiously as an intrusive decision.
Landscape mystified, veiled by a
depression of melted hues, filtering
away an ancient morning. You ponder.
The intact cottages amidst the sapphire
flame burning mountaintops into crystal
reflections become asylums to your
travelling mind. Light rain awaits.


vi   VA

(Please come in)

It’s as if a doctor was about
to sentence you to whatsoever.

Explaining an album was infallibly
personal, too personal.

The bloodless cold vigilant eyeball motionless,
bridging the pre-morphed to Auckland
where the Dr sneered at the caterpillar
trying to wrap itself with words it mouthed.

My room was parasitized by larvae
from which the brown dancers hatched
to seek the accidental moons. Every night
the music ceased as
the performer struck. Busted.

You simply don’t possess the emperor’s
eyes nor the devil’s head.

What soul are you carrying anyway?

(What soul are you carrying?)

I filled the empty slots of the album
and found myself blinded
by my own silk. The dialogues —
merely more than choked whispers.

I wrapped a moth last night
and sent it back in the most valueless
tissue paper.

And where is it now?


Near

Not the destination that causes
the heartbeat.
I still exist the parallel time
a new morning, with a different me yet
the distance,
the distance outgrows the hours.
I browser up the possibilities and
accelerate them with poison. It dies
into a chair and a desk.
Inhaling has become a means of decomposing
the in-betweens.

Out of reach as I touch it.

Bionote

Ho Cheung LEE (Peter), EdD, resides in Hong Kong where he teaches and writes. He earned his doctorate from The University of Hong Kong with a thesis on teaching reading. He was a winner in the Miracle Poetry Competition 2014. His poems have appeared in journals such as aaduna, Chaffey Review, FIVE Poetry Magazine, Red Booth Review, and The Interpreter’s House. His short stories have also been published in Eastlit, Miracle Magazine and Oddville Press. He could be contacted at http://ho-cheung.weebly.com .