First written in fall of 2023. Unfinished. 

​

I am the daughter of the waters

brittle in winter but sweet in sacred spring

the Redwood trees withstanding floods

 

Let me confess that “humans suffer”

but grief shall not be the thief of thy beauty

as the bluebird returns quick to bless thee

 

No daughter of the water forsakes her wing

in those hours, the heart leaves only buds

for the bracing mind shall ne’er defer

 

“From shining sea to shining sea”

A nomadic girl of many faces to be

undimmed by hardships to ring

 

The bells basking in the breeze

of the ticklish pine and unwrinkled firs

which makes Ann Arbor Evergreens

 

The black and white stones of daughters

After a thousand failures, see only rungs

to open the splendour of tomorrow’s sun

 

No shame nor sorrow shall break her

spirit that dries the early showers

soaking the famishéd motherland

 

She shall speak a thousand tongues

to see a friend in the unspun

holy drops of the one

 

The mountains in the Taiwan summers

faded into the distant heavens

with a wave from her dragon brother

 

His ashes buried in the river

along her route to school 

energized by the unpolluted love

 

Fear not the frost that breaks thee

for thou wounds shall render

the strength to endure the cruel

 

Pity the bitter and move onwards

loneliness is but a trial 

to remind thee of the essential

 

Thou shall always be welcomed

so withdraw from thy prison

and come home, beloved daughter

 

Hath patience and thou shall ripen

thy labor to embrace the fruits 

of life’s happiness