Episodes from Forty Years Ago
The river carries away the sunrise and sunset.
A hut and some willows are left behind.
The river carries away the story of fish and shrimp.
An empty net and some pebbles are left behind.
I look up at the roof of the hut.
Not a single snowflake of last year is left on the tile.
Only a wandering cloud is daydreaming:
What’s it like blossoming as an eggplant does?
Bees spray sunshine over my yellow-skinned face.
As I teach a yellow cucumber flower to sing.
Mom’s been holding a gourd ladle since morning.
She ladles water from the river to the garden.
She keeps ladling water all day long.
And also ladles out messages from Dad, I guess.
As a gardener Mom loves her flowers with soul.
I’m sure she loves me better in the twilight.
A sunset glow with red lips smiles.
That smile is one that no gardener cultivates.
Stars have borrowed the little hands from dews.
They knock at the door of the reclusive jasmine.
A meteor writes a big exclamation point in the sky.
It announces the bedtime for the moon.
During the day I’ve waited for Dad in vain.
I shall continue to wait in my dream.
Broken Promise
When I was five years old I lived on an isle
in the Yangtze River.
Not far from my home was a small fair.
The river looked like a scarf as it ran by my door.
I caught not the scarf in the wind,
but the hustle and bustle across the river.
Mom had made hot steamed buns to sell in the fair;
I waited on the bank of the isle for her return.
The wind blew my lips, making them dry and cracked,
I moistened them with my tongue;
The wind blew my feet, making them ache with cold,
I warmed them by stamping hard on the ground.
The candy Mom promised never grew little feet
and ran to the bank of my mouth in the end.
All I saw was a big bag of rice carried on Mom’s shoulder.
That’s our food for a whole month.
Mom had forgotten her promise to buy me candy.
On her face there was no trace of guilt,
only mirth rimmed with tiredness.
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Wei Zheng works for China Mobile. He has written poems since 1991, and his poems appear in Poetry Exploration, Poetry Journal, Stars Poetry, Poetry Monthly, and Green Breeze in China. He is also a contributor to Innisfree Poetry Journal, Third Wednesday, Apricity Magazine, Lucky Jefferson, Fahmidan Journal, and The Rainbow Poems.