Adam Zhou
Stale Goods
Four years should pass
for one to adjust to the darkness
of unblinking eyes
and even if a man
were to stare at the irides:
a small pair of mirrors
he would discover
not his reflection
but a yawning hole spilling
back into the river
now as clear as the water
now as rippled as the scars
of a body whose hands
never offered
pink carnations.
Adam Zhou’s poetry has appeared in The Rising Phoenix Review and The Kill List Chronicles. In 2017, Zhou won a National Silver Medal for personal essay and memoir from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers), the longest-running and most prestigious recognition program in the United States for creative teens in grades 7–12. He is a sophomore at the International School Manila.
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