Song for Spring
Janan Chan
McGill University
Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Quebec, Canada
janan.chan@mail.mcgill.ca
In the cool morning, a squirrel passed by.
Likely Rascal who nicked bird seeds this fall
before I learnt that rodents taste spiciness.
Our winter has been bracing and extreme.
Sparrows and chickadees roosting in pines
nourished on piquant seeds I left outside,
chirping defiantly in the raw cold;
plump hazel settled on branches and wires.
Each morning, I survey too human news.
Borders ink-signed generations ago
at risk: this dirt is mine, yours should submit.
Machines ravage the earth for valued ore.
Persons loathed for place of birth, speaking up.
In March, Rascal rouses from her slumber;
I’ll scatter almonds for her and her young.
Poet Bio
Janan Chan is a PhD student and poet. His proposed research engages language learners in creating multilingual poetry to resist and counteract dominant linguistic and cultural hierarchies. Completing his MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University, he moved to Shanghai, China, where he taught EFL from 2021 to 2024. His poems, appearing in Warm Milk, The Mitre, Fauxmoir and Soliloquies Anthology, explore themes such as identity, belonging and nostalgia. Through his regular blog posts for BILD (Belonging, Identity, Language, Diversity), a blog and journal based out of McGill, he has reflected upon and documented his teaching practices, the subversive uses of internet culture in China, and neighbourly trust during China’s pandemic lockdown.
Academia.edu