[[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE PEASANTRY  
[[link removed]]


 

Weijia Pan

Motherlands [[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Poet Weijia Pan offers a glimpse of the contradictions in a
“classless” society. _

,

 

_The people, and the people alone, are the motive force of world
history.
_

—Mao Zedong, “On Coalition Government”

I’ve found you more difficult to work with, which,
as I was told, is pretty much how you think of me.

I could smell the fertilizers on your skin.
You could smell the skinflint on my hands.

I could read history from the back of your reddened skull.
You could read me directly, reflected in the eyes of passers-by.

I eat porridge. You eat porridge. I apologize

to my guests for my lack of hospitality. You apologize

to tax collectors for the lack of produce. I think
I heard wars were waged to raise your standard of living.

You think “standard of living” is ludicrous.
I think even the communists betrayed you.

You agree, and go back to tilling your field.
I hate that your face is a mishmash of bones.

As a child, I pointed fingers at you.
When I went to see the beautiful countryside,

I admired and avoided you.
When I zoomed in on the rice paddies,

I feared you would emerge from them.
I feared you would blame me

for not thinking long enough of you.

Then I think for you. That’s not that easy.

You prefer to think about cows and children

so they don’t have to think about cows and children.

But I always fall back to thinking about you
and you will have to learn to become we:

           When we finally organize ourselves,
           even the masters in the city will invite us to tea.

_Weijia Pan is the author of Motherlands, selected by Louise Glück
for the 2023 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and published by Milkweed Editions
in 2024. A poet and translator from Shanghai, China, his poems have
appeared in AGNI, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Copper
Nickel, Georgia Review, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. He received an
MFA in Poetry from the University of Houston, where he was a winner
of the Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry. He is currently a Stegner
Fellow at Stanford University_

* Weijia Pan
[[link removed]]
* class
[[link removed]]
* peasant
[[link removed]]
* China
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit portside.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 



########################################################################

[link removed]

To unsubscribe from the xxxxxx list, click the following link:
[link removed]