Jianqing Zheng

Lotus Picking

A small sampan slides through the dense green of lotus leaves, a girl sitting on the bow picks lotus seedpods by clipping their stems, another girl stands in the stern, with her white cheongsam rippling in soft breeze, rowing and singing, her lotus-picking song skimming and flapping like a great egret over the dark green lake and then soaring, hovering, flitting and swooping overhead. When the sampan slides to shore, the bird lands back on the shoulder of the rowing girl while lotus leaves whisper softly in morning sunshine.

Lotus-Picking Song –
a dewdrop rolling
on a lotus leaf