EVEN THRUSHES DO NOT TELL RED PINE WHERE MENG HAO-JAN’S GRAVESITE IS

Red Pine talks to thrushes
when he can. The thrushes
some times disappoint him
 
but that does not mean
he will not try to talk
to a thrush again
 
Perhaps a thrush visits
Meng Hao-Jan’s grave
even as I write this poem
 
Perhaps a thrush
not a Nevermore raven
waits for me 
 
at my grave

REID MITCHELL is a New Orleanian teaching in China.  More specifically, he is a Scholar in Jiangsu Province’s 100 Foreign Talents Program, and a Professor of English at Yancheng Teachers University.  He is also Consulting Editor of CHA: AN ASIAN LITERARY JOURNAL.  His poems have been published by CHA, ASIA LITERARY REVIEW, IN POSSE, and elsewhere. His first collection, SELL YOUR BONES, was published by Berlin’s PalmArtPress.  Way back in the 20th century, he published the novel A MAN UNDER AUTHORITY.  He also had a separate career as an historian of the American Civil War.

Ga Sai Hu is a free to submit and free to read literary journal published by the Shanghai Writing Workshop.