Authorities are trying to figure out who stole a 150-pound watermelon worth $1,500
Holly Zhou, “Manipulated Watermelon,” 2026, digital collage. Background photograph courtesy of Chrysti Hydeck, February 21, 2007; watermelon painting sourced from the National Gallery of Art.
Authorities are trying to figure out who stole a 150-pound watermelon worth $1,500
WBALTV-11 | 11:31 a.m. EDT September 10, 2013
The sky is dark when he steps out onto
the back porch into his watermelon patch.
In a minute, he will find the vine is cut, feel
the dirt still cool where it once rested,
and he will stand there, dumbfounded.
For 150 pounds does not simply vanish
and much less into a single mouth;
it conjures a choir, a hushed conspiracy of laughter,
of hunched shoulders and sweaty palms, of so many
pairs of legs trying to keep pace and not trip the others.
He will imagine their astonishment as they cleaved
the rind wall open and red spilled forth, juice baptizing
their wrists and elbows, crouched in some alley,
for it would not fit on any kitchen table.
A watermelon of that size begs for witness,
demands an altar. When the day breaks, he will fall
to his knees, laughing at the thought of their confession:
We did not know its history, that it had
been spared from its turn at the state fair
so that it may remain here instead, that
it had been nurtured to the cusp of glory.
We only knew it was big. So if you grew it
to see just how big sweetness could get,
please know: it took all of us to lift it.
Delighted, he will shout back:
I hope you enjoyed
what took all summer
to become!
Anne Rong (Author)
Publab Fellow 2026
Anne Rong is a master’s student at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studies Asian American literature and identity making. Lately, she’s been reading about drone warfare, diasporic poetry, and inscrutability. Far from a poet, Anne spends most of her time playing sudoku and walking aimlessly. She hopes you like her poem, though.
Holly Zhou (Artist)
Publab Fellow 2026
Holly Zhou is a writer and mixed-media artist from the California desert, the unceded territory of the Cahuilla and Mojave peoples. Working across video, electronics, sound, software, bookbinding, and collage, Holly’s projects curate experiences mediated by play and a poetics of liberation. Their collaborative installations have been exhibited in places such as the New City Arts Gallery, the Field Projects Gallery, and the Ely Center of Contemporary Art. More of their work can be found at hollyz.cc.