Crows Are Being Born Again
It is an undeniable fact now: They have arisen from the bare ground Like the phoenix flapping its wings out of its Legendary ashes, where are they going? Nowhere but high up into a virtual space, a world That, like history book, is full of black headlines Big names, & bold details. All transmitted Into digital forms. Even the most unidentifiable Has become a star above its dark caws. Each Taken for an angel winged with the rainbows Of tomorrow, while all cranes and swans are lost In their dances to the tune of death
(R)evolution towards Dataism
More advanced in evolution than their human masters are chickens as they outnumber the stars in the whole universe, and occupy every corner of the entire planet, but as in-dividuals, no chicken can fly higher than a low fence, make love within its confinement or live together with its children. The only thing they do besides laying eggs and growing meat is standing there, day and night, as if meditating about the meaning of evolution:
It took hundreds…of thousands…of years for…homo erectus to evolve…into sapiens and longer…for chimpanzees to…erectus, but…engineering ourselves…by way of biochemistry…cyborg and…AI, we are upgrading…ourselves into…godlings—all it takes…will be just half a century…where science beats gods…and devils, saints and ghosts alike…at only…a fraction of second, when a whim…pops up for a human…to go back…to a wild animal, again…
Now given each organism as a biochemical algorithm, your life is a programmed process proving your consciousness is actually far less valuable than a fucking Frankenstein’s AI
As giant ants march ahead in nightly arrays Demonstrating against the ruling humans Along the main street of every major city Hordes of hordes of vampires flood in, screaming Aloud, riding on hyenas and Octopuses, waving skeletons In their hairy hands, whipping at old werewolves Or all-eyed aliens standing by With their blood-dripping tails Gathering behind the masses are ghosts and spirits Of all the dead, victims of fatal diseases Murders, rapes, tortures, wars, starvation, plagues Led by deformed devils and demons As if in an uprising, to seek revenge On every living victor in the human shape Some smashing walls and fences, others Barbecuing human hearts like inflated frogs Still others biting at each other’s soul around black fires All in a universal storm of ashes and blood Up above in the sky is a red dragon flying by With a heart infected by the human virus
Second Departure: for Yeats
Going, going away in an ever retreating bay The ebb starts below a quickened sun setting People swarm here, watching, picking, fighting Over the fishes, shrimps, crabs, shells, weeds All left stranded, struggling for waters on the beach They do not care if darkness stalks right behind Their shadows, rolling like a tide upon their souls They care only about the benefits they can gather The sea produce they can trade with one another Surely some ignorance is still in proper place Surely the second departing is taking place The Second Departing! The very idea stirs in the minds A huge flock of crows beating their darkening wings Flapping into the narrow sky of the prolonged history It’s these crows, these very unidentifiable black birds That are driving the light beyond the horizon, inner or outer (Where they have found God as a redundant re-creation Where they believe they are the right gods for themselves)
Epilogue: A Parallel Poem
Just as both God and Devil are man’s incarnation,
so are Heaven and Hell both man’s construction.
I From the front yard of a melodious morning From the busy road of a sweet Saturday From the moist corner of a heavy march From the back lane of pale winter We have come, here and now, all gathering In big crowds gathering in big crowds Gathering in ever-bigger crowds gathering For the boat to cross the wide wild waters Before the fairy ferry is fated to fall Under our feet too heavy with earthy mud II You may well hate Charon But you cannot help feeling envious: That business of carrying the diseased Across the River Styx is ever so prosperous The only monopoly in the entire universe That has a market share Larger than the market itself Daydreaming, on this side Of the river, how you might wish To be an entrepreneur like him A success American dreamer III Flying between sea and sky Between day and night Amid heavenly or oceanic blue I lost all my references To any timed space Or a localized time Except the non-stop snorting Of a stranger neighbor Then, beyond the snorts rising here And more looming there I see tigers, lions, leopards And other kinds of hunger-throated predators Darting out of every passenger’s heart Running amuck around us As if released from a huge cage As if in a dreamland
—Changming Yuan
©2020 Changming Yuan
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