SWEET-POTATO MAN By Zhang Xinquan

SWEET-POTATO MAN

By Zhang Xinquan

To roast sweet potatoes,

he selects the finest ones that speak to him,

places them in a barrel-shaped oven,

and arranges them to get snug and cozy along the oven's wall

in a circle, stretching, sweating,

just like poets. Aah! Aa! Ouch!

roasted over coals, they slowly turn soft, aromatic, sweet,

moans and sighs are now softer, giving steamy scents,

Mmm...

Before considering it done, he’d make sure

everyone is evenly roasted front and back

until he too becomes an ember-roasted sweet potato.

The red glow on his face and his coarse garment

has me awestruck,

so I huddle close to the oven and listen to his stories.

When he is flat out, I handle the money and change,

sharing his simple fare of strong tea and baked sesame bread.

It's dusk and I ride with him on his sweet-potato cart to go home.

Q: What do you do, my gray-haired big brother?

A: I write, paid by number of words, a few decades now.

He chuckles and says: "Far better to code sweet potatoes.

Change job, better to be a sweet, warm-hearted street pedlar..."

About the poet:

Zhang Xinquan, a native of Fushun, Sichuan Province, currently resides in Chengdu. He is a deputy to the 9th People's Congress of Sichuan Province, a director of the Poetry Institute of China, a member of the Presidium of the Sichuan Writers Association, and an invited writer of the Chengdu Literature Institute. He is the winner of the first Lu Xun Literature Award. He once worked in Poetry Periodical publishing house and Stars Poetry Journal, and has published works such as Wild Water, Birds Alighting Among the Folk and A Fine Knife.