Jianqing Zheng

A Cheap Thing to Do on a Boring Weekend

Sam waits on the side porch wanting to grab shots of a hummingbird flinging to the nectar feeder, but a tail-wagging squirrel on the pecan tree makes a loud cough as if to disrupt. Sam casts his impatient glance at the noisemaker when a shadow darts to the feeder. Before he can respond the hovering bird shoots away. Shucks! He cups his hands around his mouth to make a hooting sound. The squirrel keeps coughing.

moonrise
the caught fish slips
out of hands
 

Memory of Mom’s Cat

When the sunset straddles atop the cabin like a red-faced cowboy on a bronco, Tigger scoots in through the cat door, a squirrel clamped between its jaws. It saunters to the den, where mom watches The Golden Girls, to show her the prey. “How dare you!” Mom pats her hand on the couch arm. Stunned, Tigger bolts out. In a while, it returns, crouches on the kitchen floor to sniff at its dinner plate. After one lick, it wanders to the den, rubs its arched back against mom’s shanks. When mom claps her hands, Tigger leaps onto her laps for a stroke.

Christmas gift
an embroidered cat
for mom
 

Jianqing Zheng is the author of A Way of Looking (Silverfish Review Press, 2021) and editor of Conversations with Dana Gioia (University Press of Mississippi, 2021).