Roy Zhu
Did you know
Sedona, Arizona
Is the only place in the world
Where the McDonald’s arches are blue?
Here gold holds no weight to turquoise
The stone that mirrors open sky
And opens mirrored heavens in the palm
of my hand.
On the interstate I learn the word turquoise
And hope for veins of blue
To rise from the desert rose.
I learn the word interstate too
Along with ghost town and oil springs,
Canyonland and Mesa Grande.
Outside the Bryce Canyon gift shop
I rattle jetstone magnets in my palm,
Translating guidebooks into murky Chinese,
Angry at proper nouns
Which shatter before reaching my parents’ tongue.
你知不知道
Sedona, A 利 zona
是世界上唯一的地放
McDonald’s 的 arches 是蓝色得 ?
Unspoken between lines
I translate myself.
Somehow in all this,
I am becoming American:
Flagstaff to Sedona,
One-way translation.
Roy Zhu / 朱若忆 is a first-year from Braintree, Massachusetts studying Environmental Science and Creative Writing. They enjoy improv comedy, going outside, and wondering where the time went. They hope one day to teach poetry in a room filled with profound, beautiful monsters and useless things in every color.
