John Zheng
Weary Blues
after Eudora Welty’s Washwoman
After hanging laundry on the line, the washwoman slumps on the wooden steps, her left hand holding her right elbow as if holding a bottle of tiredness from dropping into painful shards flying in all directions. She needs a moment to breathe, sigh, or hum like the chugging of a distant train. A black-and-white dog crouches beside her, and a striped cat behind her toys with a turtle. The two galvanized washtubs wait to be filled with laundry again.
harvest moon
over stubble fields
its light the tune
of a diddley bow
slowly plucked
Editor’s Note: Click here to watch “The Photography of Eudora Welty.” The photo of the washwoman appears at 2:32 in the video.
About the Author
John Zheng has authored Enforced Rustication in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and published haibun and tanka prose in cho, Haibun Today, Southern Quarterly, and Spillway. His latest book is A Way of Looking, a collection of haibun and tanka prose.