The Origin of Letters
By Yuan Changming
A
As the first born to the Semitic family
A was originally a picture of an alef or ox, the
Agricultural energy that was rotated twice until
Alpha loomed up in the Greek psychoscape even before
Adam became the chosen father of all Europeans close to
Athens, where Apollo had acupunctured wisdom and knowledge
into
Aristotle, the intellectual ancestor of modern man, who
inspired
Alexander to make the first effort of globalization, which
did not reach East
Asia, the land of Ah Q’s, the largest hotel for
All travelers until centuries later, but it is
Atomic bombs that will blow up all our pasts and send us
through
America to a higher civilization, where the drop of an
Apple is to enable us to fly to the other side of the
universe
Along the cosmic string as
Africa, the heart of human darkness
Awaits for Buddha, Jesus, Allah or
An other unknown author to come and rotate for the third
time
A scarlet letter of
A
B
boy, boy! britain begins beating brazil badly behind belrus'
back, because bipedal britons believe brazilians behave better before boys
become barbaric; beyond blue borders, bill's big bully boss blatantly breaks
bounds by betraying blood-bound brotherhood, but bill's best biographer belies
books braving bellicose breeds between balanced buoyancies.
beach birds besides boulders beget babies below beautiful
bushes...
C
a Phoenician throw-stick
held high in his right hand
the Egyptian basket
lying far beyond his reach
what was, what is
the Chinese peasant
trying to do
in his story?
D
it is
neither a
door
nor a delta
it is nothing, anything
but a
hand
trying desperately
to open the
door to the delta
when every
reed bows down deeply
E
born to be a double reed
that can be bent
into a long vowel
the most frequently used letter
in english, echoing
endlessly
in silences
if pulled down, it offers two doors
one leading to Soul via will, the other
to Him
via wisdom; if turned up right
it forms a mountain with three peaks
like three holy swords, pointing high
one against the sun
one against the moon
one against the sky
Facing
always towards the east, it embraces
existence, equality, eternity, emancipation...
F
as in fragrant flowers
that keep flirting with sunlight
on a French afternoon
forwarded to the future
will be a foiled fairytale
about France, as it tries to
catch a deformed viper
with an ancient hook
G
Gives us
all the glories of
God, Godot,
the gorilla
Amidst the
gamers, constantly
Reminding
us of George
Germany,
the G-spot,
GPA, or GDP
H
inspired by a fence in hell
you were invented long ago
to connect
every human
for a tall ladder
of hope
that we can stand high
against the blue
horizon
like the Babel Tower growing to reach Him
where I can
find a home in the fame hall
where I can
settle my soul in
heaven
I
To begin with
The hieroglyphical origin of
My identity was simply no body
But a common reed
Bowing its head to the rising sun
On the barren bank of the Nile
Slim, tall, hollow-hearted
Standing against tropical heat
Until one day 'I' was used
As a human symbol, an open vowel
Referring to the speaker
And since then I have become
One of the most frequently spelt letters
In the linguistic order of the day
Always capitalized
To embody my dignity
Though I am nothing
But a common reed
That could have been made into a flute
J
a small cobra coiled
in a big pyramid's shape
always read to bite
just like Japan
just like Justice
K
an other
basket
you hold
anything having a shape
but sand or
water
* *
for all
your knighthood
you keep
quiet before knowledge
but never
the king
L
with an
open angle
you
embraces all legends
about light
and lions
M
despite
your body
as imposing
as a massive mountain
you have a
mindset
hidden
deeply
in the
wisdom of a little owl
in the
plasticities of a drop
of water
N
No, nobody
knows this
But you are
really no more
Or no less
than the old
Egyptian
metonymy of
A stream,
river, lake, sea or
Even an
entire ocean, where
There is
always water , where
There are
always fish
Rather than
a synecdochic Z
Pushed
straight upright
On the bank
of the Euphrates
O
a rope loop propped
up with hope
to lasso words running amuck
a mouth reshaped, repositioned
to pronounce the roundest vowel
P
not really a
stoop
but a flag fluttering
there
followed by
pi rates
Q
a chord, made of sunlight
instead of
grass
will lead each climber to the peak
though few can find it
on the hillside
beside the question
R
residing
near their summer resort
through her
entire year
after their
marriage, (for better or for worse)
russian
author catherine tries narrating
her bearish
story from their wintery perspective
where her
major concerns are perhaps
wrapping
gershwin's rhapsody
around
hieroglyphic spring sprouts
S
with a
double hook
the sexist, the most charming shape
looking more like a naked woman
in postmodern art
than folded cloth used to cover her body
in an Egyptian tale
always
ready to
seduce
T
the Egyptian loaf
far off the Phoenician mark
is still edible now
U
u is surely
a part of you, while
you sound
no more than a single letter
u, which is
nothing but a copy of a chick
you used to
be on the bank of the Nile, where
u can be
changed into
v within an
european word as in yvan; it's said
you have
the makings of a
victor, a
us or un representative who begins the
uniform,
university, universe.
V
with the shape of victory
you are a viper in essence:
each victory is a
poisonous snake
W
pecking around a lion
only the little chick
knows the word's worth
as it writes the worlds' story
with its feet printed on the ground
rather than on a papyrus
X
only when two straight roads meet
at an intersection, or
only when you cross the road
crossing the border can you
understand why Christ's body is
nailed on the cross, but his soul
rises high above the land
Y
You are
haunted by ‘Y’, not because it’s the
First
letter in your family name, but because
It’s
like a horn, which the water buffalo in your
Native
village uses to fight against injustice
Or,
because it’s like a twig, where a crow
Can
come down to perch, a cicada can sing
Towards
the setting sun as loud as it wants to
More
important, in Egyptian hieroglyphics
It
stands for a real reed, something you can
Bend
into a whistle or flute; in pronouncing it
You
can get all the answers you need, besides
You
can make it into a heart-felt catapult
And
shoot at a snakehead or sparrow, as long
As it
is within the range of your boyhood
Z
sharp-angled
in opposite
directions:
you are not
so much like
a weird weapon,
a manacle, or
a bolt for
fastening the flood
of the
Nile in ancient logography
as like a
postmodern zebra
zigzagging with
zeal
like a
zealot trying to pass
through an inflated
zero
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