Cici Zhang

Elegy for the American Southwest

Dawn undresses us. Headlights
kaleidoscope into mote-flecked
sky. Sightseers roll through us.
We harbor visions of tumbleweed
& atrophy into reservoirs of dust.
Mail us the American Dream
in one-cent postcards, clothing it
in your tattered straitjackets
of hemp. Like streambeds, we fissure
into uproar, lightning kindling
in us. You somersault on the knife
-edge of wildfire. Children pry
open scorpions: they are teething
gods. Growing sparrow-heavy,
we peel away the frontier
of scrubland. Mist dissipates.

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Cici Zhang is an Asian-American poet residing in Palo Alto, California. She has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists; her work appears in Eunoia Review, Aster Lit and Beaver Mag. Cici is an alum of Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship. When she isn’t writing, you can find her obsessing over Pinterest moodboards or archery.