RUIYAN ZHU

Family Serving

Father lifts the clay pot from a back shelf
at Chun Ching Market, clearance stickers

still clinging to its freckled glaze. There’s life 
to this, he points, as if his index finger might hook

some spirit from its splotched lip. At home, Father gathers 
ingredients for broth—his version of ambrosia. Cabbage, soft-

eared mushrooms, beef stock ladled into the pot’s belly. Steam 
rises slowly through the Cuisinart lid before assimilating

into the air. In this house, memory seasons itself
with American myth. We don’t speak 

once the broth starts simmering. The bowls we fill
with our lotus knots feed all four of us. 

Ruiyan Zhu is a high school senior from Saratoga, California who currently serves as the editor-in-chief of her school newspaper and literary magazine. Her work has been recognized by JUST POETRY!!!I and the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.