On the Relative Distance Between Sky and Emperor
2020; Emerson College; Volume: 46; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/plo.2020.0178
ISSN2162-0903
Autores Tópico(s)Plant responses to water stress
ResumoOn the Relative Distance Between Sky and Emperor He Xiang (bio) Husking the foxtail millet gives it a new namewhere I'm from, the abundant attention staple cropscommand not so different from superhero reboots oneafter another, a man shedding a capeis a new man with a new past. I wanted to explain thisthe time a man in a corner office said he knew a saying from China:"The sky is high and the emperor is far." Quick, whatdoes it mean? Answer: you may do as you please, make as you wish. Directly proportionalmeaning a linear safe harbor every rulebreaker could count on,the imperial promise of making the distant horizona quieter one gilded with the parboiled softness of a sinking sun. Close to the emperor meant a city, the not altogethersmall thing of infrastructure, brocadeif you could afford it, mandarin exams if you wereinclined. Close to the emperor like Earth's good fortune of being an inner planet,the warmth of a tyrant's glareno less true for its source when iceis true, when liquid methane is true. // Now invert it. Quick, what god said, "Two hundred of you will give us20 years of peace. Will let me finish my work." Directly proportional meaning when you are closeto the emperor, the sky is always falling. [End Page 172] He Xiang He Xiang lived in Beijing as a child. These poems are part of a chapbook manuscript titled Emperor Penguins on the Square, which reflects on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary, as well as Xiang's childhood in Beijing and China's development in the subsequent three decades. Other poems from this series have appeared in The American Poetry Review and Prairie Schooner, which awarded them the Strousse Poetry Award, and will be forthcoming in Bennington Review and The Rumpus. Copyright © 2020 Emerson College
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