Two Poems
Zhu Xiao Di
The Best of Me
The best of me
is all in my books, where
you can find, a mind
endlessly inquisitive.
The author, no longer young,
merry and digressive,
chats with you, as close as
most readers ever will come to.
He stands over the bargain carts
at Brattle Street, on a beautiful
summer afternoon, with anyone
who happens to open his books.
He takes you on a blustery walk,
across the Mass. Ave. Bridge,
in the autumn, tells you what he
is thinking, at that moment.
He sits over a little table,
at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant,
in Boston’s Chinatown, speaks to
whoever cares to ask about his books.
He is the best of me,
better than I wish to be.
As a book reviewer says:
He deserves to be in Penguin Classics.
That’ll be my
dream already
made by someone
else.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Myself
Do I know me
What does me know
How can I say I know me, if
I don’t know what me knows
Do I like me
What does me like
How can I say I like me, if
I don’t know what me likes
Do I hate me
What does me hate
How can I say I hate me, if
I don’t know what me hates
Do I know me
Why do I know me
How can I know me, if
I don’t know how me knows
Do I like me
Why do I like me
How can I like me, if
I don’t know how me likes
Do I hate me
Why do I hate me
How can I hate me, if
I don’t know how me hates
Do I know me
How do I know me
Why can I know me, if
I don’t know what me knows
Do I like me
How do I like me
Why can I like me, if
I don’t like what me likes
Do I hate me
How do I hate me
Why can I hate me, if
I do hate what me hates
Do I know me
Why do I know me
How can I know me, if
I don’t know what me knows
Do I like me
Why do I like me
How can I like me, if
I don’t like what me likes
Do I hate me
Why do I hate me
How can I hate me, if
I do hate what me hates
Do I know me
What does me want
How can I say I know me, if
I don’t know what me wants
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 some poems lately at Blue Unicorn, ē·rā/tiō, Eunoia Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Beatnik Cowboy, and WestWard Quarterly. He contributes to Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child (anthology).