Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé (b. 1971)
SELECTED POEMS
Allegory 2
Red means different things
in different places.
It’s good luck to wear red for the Chinese.
It’s an ideological badge for the Russians.
At a funeral,
a tourist from Drakensberg
came in a red suit.
There was an audible gasp.
It’s the colour of grief and mourning
from where he came.
He told us he called Drakensberg home.
Drakensberg means Dragon Mountains.
The tourist lived in a red house.
He set up a red birdhouse
near the road.
He set it up for the rockjumper
who came by often.
The siskin too,
after it decided to leave its flock.
After it lost its nest of newly laid eggs.
by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé
from Thirty-Seven Reasons Red is Rad (2016)
