Sunday, April 5, 2020

Day 5/30 (we'll catch 1-4 later maybe)


With thanks to NaPoWriMo for the prompt:


This country is a child with a grandfather’s history
and here, I am a newborn.
So the light blinds, life’s soundtrack deafens, each new smell becomes
an instant shared taste while phantom electrics prickle my flesh.
I feel the smells. I taste the lights and the sounds
dance in the air.
In Táiwān, my name is Freedom. Zìyóu. from the motto of Clan Wallace,


and here, I am a grandmother.
Who on this earth loves their chains?
My whip is only three or four horses;
because of this I am always outdoors.
Nǐ hǎo,” they say, or if they really mean it, “Lí hé.”
The genuine greeting of a people mixplaced.
Snaking roads take you straight to where you should be
and I fly with my horses to every home I find.
Zìyóu and her tiny team of horses


will never tire of traveling here,
this raucous country, these patient beaches, these smoking hills.
Born 150 degrees from here but this is my home.
Lí chih pá bōe? Chih pá-ah!
My three horses together are one humble scooter, carrying me like a newborn,
a grandmother, feeling the language on electric skin.