DIARY OF AN EARLY SPRING by Zheng Maoming

DIARY OF AN EARLY SPRING

by Zheng Maoming

An empty truck rumbles through the alley behind the office building,

rattling all of its metal frame, clankety-clank.

Dazzling sunshine, sluggish spring, a groggy afternoon,

the truck passes and leaves behind a bit of quiet.

The trees have green halos; color of moss appears in a daydream;

an old chair tries to shine;

the desk files and reports never get moldy;

the phone rings, the door knocks, two waves of visitors without appointments;

that’s when the quiet ends,

as we chatter on and on about everything,

sprinkled with moments of boredom,

then I think of shaking the dirt from my shoes.

A tractor squeezes in, happily tooting along,

black smoke chugging out of its exhaust pipe,

belching soot like black flower petals.

Silence is gone again, and so is the noise.

About the poet:

Zheng Maoming was born in 1980 in Lingxian, Shandong Province, and currently resides in Tangshan, Hebei Province. He is a member of the Hebei Writers Association, deputy secretary-general of the Hebei Young Poets Association, and editor of the independent poetry periodical Phoenix. His works have been published in various journals including Poetry Periodical, Stars, Yangtze River Poetry Journal and Poetry Monthly. His poems have been included in anthologies such as Annual Chinese Poetry and Selected Chinese Poetry, and he has been shortlisted for the Poetry Exploration Chinese Young Poets Award several times. He is the author of the poetry collection Diagnosis of a Stomach.