~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Xiang Xu

To My Friends in Mississippi

If I had Perseus’ winged sandals,

I would skim the vast glistening blue

to meet you on that red-clay shore.

I’d flee the frost of Winter’s grip,

until I breathe the heavy air—

drenched in BBQ and honeysuckle,

thick with a Blues shuffle and a cardinal’s trill.

I’d cruise those backroads

where police cars never patrol,

where deer startle in the high beams,

and deserted gas stations and forsaken shacks

defy the reign of Time,

till Mr. James’ white trailer

and the giant live oak

reminds me that

I am back home again.

I was lost

the other night

as I walked

in the shadows of the hollow giants.

Then you rolled by

in your silver Chevy, your face,

basked in the Mississippi twilight

and your voice,

enchanted my ears

with that familiar drawl:

“I saw your ghost—

trapped in’em Mis’ipi honky tonks.”

Xiang Xu was a country singer and an academic, who received his PhD in History from the University of Mississippi. Xu returned to China in May 2025 after his 13-year residency in rural Mississippi. Xu has published poems in Deep South Magazine. He currently works as an English teacher at Guangzhou College of Commerce.