poem written when my 婆婆 could still remember me
By Annina Zheng-Hardy
last year i asked my mother what she thinks 在粉碎
tbt stands for 记忆 “turn back time?”
仍有许多人 and I
didn’t 努力保留着
tell 仅存的碎片differently
when my mother was small and
misbehaved her mother would tell her: you don’t deserve a good death
now i see
my mother’s mother one half her
face at a time sometimes 之前一阵大风席卷世界而来
the video freezes i wait
but the connection 之后一阵大风席卷
is fine she is just being
still
the 世界而去
more of her memories she loses
the sweeter she becomes
eating peaches shirtless over the sink
juices and pulp running down my arms abundance
my mother and my mother's mother taught me to inherit
i remember that
there will be a last time
i hear my mother laugh
感恩生活
my grandmother was already my mother’s mother and
long an orphan the first time she heard
a plastic bag
what would she have thought it sounded
like that first time
how would she describe to me
the sound of it
when you
touch my face
尽管有时感觉是满地鸡毛
and i am already motherless