Yingwuzhou (Parrot Island) Bridge over the Yangtze River in Wuhan, Hubei (China)

A fisherman

skirting shore

in his high-prowed skiff

crossing bamboo oars

comes up with a jolt –

nets catch not fish

but the wizened finger

of a submerged branch

for below

a sunken valley persists –

slick bare trunks

furred in wafting fronds

have water for sky,

ghost forest.

Roots rot deep in the hill

where buried rock

is still dry.

Excerpt from the poem Yangtze by Sarah Howe