One day, in the open-air, a poetry reading
across Zhongnanhai—right in the Eye
of China. You can’t recall a time, or a place,
that wasn’t Manufacture Red. In fact, your great
race was almost dead. Yet it survived: cultural
revolution, Mao, the laogai.
The roughed-up, cloud-scraped sky, finally parted
for Poetry. As one lyrical lantern after another
illuminated the banks of our waters. & our words,
& our mouths, dropped. & then out came—
The Air!
__________
Adam Jon Miller‘s poems have been included in The Louisville Review, Yalobusha Review, Thimble Literary Magazine,The William & Mary Review, OxMag, In Parentheses, and The Dewdrop, and elsewhere. He is a poetry reader at Thimble Literary Magazine. A selection of Adam’s work has been translated into Chinese. Adam is a Jewish writer. Visit him anytime at www.adamjonmiller.com.