Reunion

By Jianqing Zheng

— Vincent van Gogh’s Two Lovers

Walking along the river, the sailor
tells his lover that one day
on the ocean when waves and wind
grew wild to capsize the ship, he cried out
her name for a miracle to happen.

Moved to tears, she circles her arm
around his shoulders, a thick anchor rode
to fasten him from sailing again.

Tortured by separation, they need
to be tied for a pillow talk.

In the distance where people
cross the drawbridge, the red sun
is sinking. The two lovers
exchange a longing look and
quicken their steps.

Jianqing Zheng is the author of six poetry collections and chapbooks including The Dog Years of Reeducation and A Way of Looking, which won the 2019 Gerald Cable Book Prize. He teaches in the Mississippi Delta and his poems have recently appeared in Digging Through the Fat, Hawaii Pacific Review, and Mississippi Review.