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Stories of place from the people who call Mississippi home.
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Editor’s note: Line spacing becomes distorted on a mobile device, so I recommend reading these poems and viewing the accompanying photos on a desktop computer. You can read Jianqing Zheng’s Rooted Questionnaire here.

Reflection on the Lake —William Ferris’s Wes Carter Lake, Warren County, Mississippi It is a ripple of light and shadow that deforms something or nothing in the breeze. Even the clouds floating leisurely need a moment to immerse their white robes in water. Snapping shots by the lake, I catch a moment of reflection on the lake of the mind. What's visual may not be what's seen by the mind's eye. In a sense, existence is a state of nonexistence, time is timeless, and root is rootless. The reflection on the lake dims out when the sun dips into its reflection, into darkness.

Couple —William Ferris’s Lee Cooper and Joe Cooper, Kent’s Alley, Leland, Mississippi Love is molecules joining atoms for chemical reactions, it’s plain life like they hold hands till old age, it’s oneness as staunch as their roots gnarling together like a delta blues song dedicated to wind and rain, sun and moon, and the flatland underfoot.