Jianqing Zheng: Dreaminations

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Old Field Road Sign, Mount Locust, Mississippi

The engraved sign shows a young woman with a basket in her hand walking down the road, her long skirt swaying like sunlight rustling with shriveled leaves. Is she taking lunch to her husband harvesting cotton or going berry picking in the woods?

fall solitude
spanish moss hangs
from live oaks

I follow her to the cemetery. A white marble obelisk, standing there like a historic landmark, reveals her name and dates of birth and death. She’s been at rest since 1849. I take a snapshot of her and pace back to the parking lot. Footsteps echo the long past.

empty dusk
a split-rail fence
zigzags

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In Another Country

A newcomer to the new world, Langlang’s mama starts to learn English at thirty-five. One morning after preparing breakfast, she hollers in English, “Son, brakefast ready.” No answer. The boy, who played games online last night, is still in bed. She brushes to his bedroom and whispers into his ear, “Brakefast ready.”

“Brake fast? What’s that?” Langlang mumbles.
“Break first!” her tone is emphatic and pitchy.
“What first?”
“Ea’ first!”

Then she pinches his mouth gently, smirking, “Don’ wha’ wha’ like a Chihuahua. Jum’ out bed and ea’ hot-sour noodles.” After his mother walks back to the kitchen, Langlang rubs his eyes, grunting, “Hot-sour noodles? Never heard of it. I’ll eat cereal.”

He crawls out of bed and moves sleepily to the kitchen, like a clumsy turtle on sand. As soon as he sits at the table, Langlang breaks wind, as loud as the sudden popping of a running lawnmower. His mama frowns, “Mind your manners. Don’ far’ when you ea your breakfart!”

Big Buddha temple
all languages flow
to the golden statue

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From Dreaminations: Prose Poems by Jianqing Zheng (Madville, 2026).

Jianqing Zheng (who also publishes as John Zheng) is the author of The Dog Years of Reeducation, A Way of Looking, and five poetry chapbooks and e-chapbooks; editor of seven scholarly books, including Conversations with Dana Gioia and Sonia Sanchez’s Poetic Spirit through Haiku; and coeditor of four scholarly books, including Dana Gioia: Poet & Critic. He is professor of English at Mississippi Valley State University.