This Summer the pear tree bears no fruit
The lemons seem not to be wiling to ripe
And the lakes are all dried up
You told me the things I want to hear
but did not initiate any change to that
My words fell into the void
Haunted by the dreaded future,
I heard my screams floating in the air
And the wind carried my fear to infinity
Will you love me
Despite all my bad wont?
Will you like me
When I’m grumpy and clumsy?
Will you befriend me
Now that I expose my flaws?
‘Cause nobody is perfect
And I’m good enough
Describe to me
Your wildest dreams
Share with me
Your deepest thoughts
Connect with me
On the dark side of my heart
‘Cause nobody is perfect
And I’m good enough
What dreams could you have living in the shabby,
cursed house where even the spirits
were suppressed and choked to death?
Figuring I could not go beyond
the books I read, the movies I saw,
the life I was living
I went with the flow
my dreams lingering in the air
And then you came
Of a few dreams which soared to the sky
and others that died un-materialized
you’re better than the best dream
I’ve ever had
Fragments of lives scattering in the air
Blown into my soul one brisk
Spring morning in the park
The old verses written over ten years past
Still flickered in my heart
*******
Những mảnh đời vắt ngang không trung
Một hôm theo cơn gió thổi hắt vào lòng ta
Một sáng cuối xuân trời hiu hiu lạnh
Những vần thơ xưa viết hơn mươi năm trước
Vẫn âm ỉ trong lòng
If we need to talk about mother’s love
Then yours is everything that is grand, pure and sweet
Which has nourished and lifted me up
Thru all life’s ups and downs
The day I left for the faraway land
You carried one more burden of missing your children
On your slender shoulders
As delicate as the words you wove into poems
And blew across the Pacific ocean
Despite all the burdens and suppression
Imposed upon you by a conservative society
You strove and lived on
Like a lotus rising above the mud
Like a buttercup glowing in the green grass
Like an eagle soaring in the sky
In the chaotic time that we live in
Where the handmaids march on the streets of Texas
And Princess Ida cries again on the stage
For women’s rights to education and independence
You are an exemplar who inspires me
To have a free spirit, an open mind,
And be a strong willed woman
You are honey and hammer to me
And you will always be.
Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom
And all the mothers of the past,
the present, and the future!
You set foot on an unknown path assuming
It would be lined with roses and poetry
It turned out it was not like honey and nectar
But you went on since it was a fact of life
You endured all the hardships on the way
The days without electricity
The floor flooded with water when it was pouring outside
The allocation of food and water
You lived and dreamed of a brighter future
Sustained by the fruits grown on the path
Oh how fresh and delighted and adorable
You sucked them in and overcame
All the adversities in life.
Happy 48th Anniversary to Mom and Dad!
The high winds were blowing thru the stone mountains on the deserts
Stirring the fragile yellow cups on the sand
And shaking the unusually long spikes of the pink ocotillo
I stood breathing in the life of the deserts
Trembling inside
Imagining all the rich life forces going on days and nights
Reckoning how hard the cacti, the joshua trees, the caterpillars
Compete for water and food and sunlight
I felt a wave of gratefulness
The call of love and life was somewhere between the blue sky
And the laughter of the boys climbing the yellow stone mountain peaks
Pleasingly I moved on.
