A Day in DC, alone

on the train
      reading over her shoulder
      a Chinese newspaper
      she held and
            I read

at lunch
      joined by a stranger
      speaking Mandarin to me,
            my pale skin
            with blue eyes

roaming the city
      standing for a nation
      remote in a way
the Forbidden City
      had never seemed

finally brought near
      by a newspaper
      a stranger in a
            foreign land
      and a language
      not quite acquired

Shelly Bryant splits her time between Singapore and Shanghai, working as a teacher, freelance writer, researcher, and student of Chinese language and culture. Her first volume of poetry, Cyborg Chimera, was released by Sam’s Dot Publishing in October 2009, and her second volume, Under the Ash, is due to follow in late 2010. Shelly loves to read, write, cycle, and travel, and enjoys the opportunities for all of these that her present migratory lifestyle affords.