Analysis of Chinese



The first time I ate Chinese
She made me use chopsticks
The sticks hung like broken fingers
But she insisted I try

She had traveled to China
Slept in a tent on the steppe
Where little villagers
Marveled at red hair

All that I understand of China
A custom here, a forbidden temple
Spilled from her pink mouth
And crept inside of me

Now, I cook my own Chinese
In a tarnished wok on the stove
The smell lingers in the carpet
Of this dim apartment

And some nights, I hear through walls
Two making love
Their whispers and cries sound foreign to me
And could be Chinese


Scheme AXBX CXBX CXXD AXXX XXDA
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 0111101 11111 01111010 1101011 1110110 1001101 110100 10111 11101110 0101010010 11011 010111 1111101 00101101 01100010 111010 0111111 1101 1100111011 01101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 544
Words 108
Sentences 1
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 01, 2011

Modified on April 02, 2023

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