Six poems by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé

1
a is for alienation

seeing that the holidays have come around
everyone ready to cross state lines in sedans
parking lots and main roads emptied out
even the corner pitstop shutters its doors
on this christmas eve strangely tranquil
as the reader vaguely recalls the week before
blurring into stormy nights on pismire island
the way sisley would repaint molesey weir
the palm warbler next to the prairie warbler
against a blue canvas where the mermaid
surfaces to break water to wander closer
to shore the way the reader is hunched over
manet’s dead matador his head turned
to his left as if in resignation and remorse
or the beggar with oysters also named
the philosopher as if heidegger wrapped
a black shawl just like that over his chest
like a breastplate even as the security guard
scours the floor for someone looking forlorn
yet alert enough for an evening of discourse
with the priest waiting for his annual ride
to an equally quiet family dinner and hoping
for someone to read him the day’s headlines
each a lyric reminder of this forgotten world