Mama, come back.
Why did you leave
now that I am learning you?
The landlady next door
how she apologizes
for my rough brown skin
to her tenant from Hong Kong
as if I were her daughter,
as if she were you.
How do I say I miss you
your scolding
your presence
your roast loin of pork
more succulent, more tender
than any hotel chef’s?
The fur coat you wanted
making you look like a polar bear
and the mink-trimmed coat
I once surprised you
on Christmas morning.
Mama, how you said “importment”
for important,
your gold tooth flashing
an insecurity you dared not bare,
wanting recognition
simply as eating noodles
and riding in a motor car
to the supermarket
the movie theater
adorned in your gold and jade
as if all your jewelry
confirmed your identity
a Chinese woman in America.
How you said “you better”
always your last words
glazed through your dark eyes
following me fast as you could
one November evening in New York City
how I thought “Hello, Dolly!”
showed you an America
you never saw.
How your fear of being alone
kept me dutiful in body
resentful in mind.
How my fear of being single
kept me
from moving out.
How I begged your forgiveness
after that one big fight
how I wasn’t wrong
but needed you to love me
as warmly as you hugged strangers.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Important thing’s in life by Martin Smith
- On A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper
- A Man, They Made a God by Walid Saba
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Сослуживцу
- A Greek Girl poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Psalm 06 poem – John Milton poems
- Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation by William Butler Yeats
- The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth
- A Tippling Ballad—When Princes and Prelates, etc. by Robert Burns
- Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling
- our_refuge.html
- The Sun Of The First Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- Without You by Miraj Patel
- last words to the moon by Raj Arumugam
- Extract From The Conclusion Of A Poem Composed In Anticipation Of Leaving School by William Wordsworth
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
