Three Poems
Zhu Xiao Di
I Read to Sleep
I read to sleep, and wake to snore
My wife chortles, and says that’s weird
How could that be possible, she askes
I drink coffee and feel drowsy
Often proclaiming to her I can’t sleep
without a cup of tea. She sneers
as if it’s impossible. That’s true, I retort
Don’t you always wake me up
when you shut down the TV?
She snorts and thinks I’m impossible
When impossible becomes the norm
what else can be expected?
Wisdom of Age
Wealthy men entering heaven,
says the Bible,
is harder than camel going through
the eye of needle
An ancient man
says in China,
it’s hard for a man of fortune
to write a good article
The hardest of all,
say I, who never wrote poems
before 60, is to make
poetry now. What a fool
Weather Forecast
The weather forecast says:
It’ll rain in half an hour,
stop an hour later.
I was just about to go for a walk.
What happens next?
Four possibilities:
I wait at home,
for the rain to stop.
But the forecast was wrong.
I’ve wasted my time.
I take a chance,
get poured upon.
Return home
soaking wet.
Maybe I’m lucky,
punctually enjoy my walk,
my vanity, my
self-celebrated valor.
Likely the forecast’s accurate.
When the rain stops I go out
to meet sunshine, rainbow, blue sky,
and green raindrops hanging on twigs.
Zhu Xiao Di is the author of Thirty Years in a Red House (memoir), Tales of Judge Dee (novel), Leisure Thoughts on Idle Books (essays in Chinese), and lately a few poems (in both Chinese and English). He is also a contributor to Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child (anthology), along with John Updike and Winston Groom.