Vox Populi
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Jianqing Zheng: Mama Nell
The Pear Tree
For Mama Nell
The pear tree by the window is blooming in profusion. Mom, who has been suffering a stroke, asks her maid to lift her up from the bed to look at the blossoms shining in the warm sunshine. She planted it sixty years ago when she and dad moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Since then she became a master gardener, well-known for her colorful daylilies which will not bloom without her care, but the pear tree, like an old faithful, never disappoints her.
spring sunrise
pear blossoms take on
a shade of red
~~
Last Words
At Mama Nell’s funeral, the pastor gave an account of her life experience as a butcher in a slaughterhouse in New Orleans, a singer for two years with the Louis Armstrong Jazz Band before Armstrong became worldly famous, a traveler to the five continents, and a master gardener who planted hundreds of species of day lilies in her front, back and side yards. To me, she was also a pioneer teacher of English who went to teach in China in the late 1970s and a stamp collector who, on the verge of death, uttered with great effort her last words to me: “Stamps, Chinese stamps, all yours.”
funeral processional
the pall sways too
with the jazz band
Copyright 2021 Jianqing Zheng. From A Way of Looking.
Jianqing Zheng (who also publishes under the name John Zheng) is a professor of English at Mississippi Valley State University. His books include A Way of Looking (Silverfish Review Press, 2021) and The Dog Years of Reeducation (Madville 2023).
Vox Populi 
Dear all, thank you so much for your warm comments on my haibun.
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Such a moving account of courage and love, and of survival.
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A very succinct way of telling a story.
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Thank you. The Haibun was perfect for this morning’s meditation.
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SO much between the lines to allow our imagination to bloom also! I, too, love the haibun! Thank you, John. That image of the pear tree “taking on a shade of red” is so haunting! And Mama Nell’s long story so well told in such few lines!
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I’m seeing more American poets using the haibun form lately. It’s very versatile, and can handle narrative, lyric and dramatic subjects.
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I am grateful for these and the previous postings of “John Zheng” which I also just read. I’ve been interested in Haibun and their emblematic function that only intensifies these intimacies. Perfect timing for me!
Thankyou.
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Yes, Zheng is a fascinating writer…
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wonderful haibun. (Carla Schwartz)
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