Lucy Zhang

Lucy Zhang is a software engineer at Apple. She enjoys writing fiction and poetry, as well as dabbling in making animations. She also watches a healthy amount of anime.

From Here to the River

We’re walking to a river
the path is full
of jail bailout companies
detention centers reaching toward a grey sky
metal bar checkered windows, vertical slits in brick
surrounded by a layer of barbed wire and then concrete wall.
Can they see us
dressed in this Amazon steal wine-colored dress,
cowboy hat, Flyknit Nike shoes
down here from up there?
We’re just looking for a river
and we’re taking the long way,
wandering under bridges where the homeless sleep,
sprinting across highway intersections
with few pedestrian crossings and equally few cars.
And the river–just a plane of grass
a half-heartedly paved gravel walkway
not a stream of water in sight.