long poem envisioned

This is a planned prose poem about my roots in China and the formative years in Aberdeen, which goes full circle from betrayal to redemption. JOURNEY TO THE WEST I. An Act of Betrayal A. The Village Nan-on B. The Village Bow-lung II. Journey in Yellow Water A. The Mosquito Net B. The Currency III. Train Station Shum-june A. Third Aunt B. The Train Ride III. Communist Boy A. School B. Kowloon IV. The Examination THE ABERDEEN SAGA “ONE FLEW OVER THE COOKOO’S NEST” REDEMPTION JOURNEY TO THE WEST I. An Act of Betrayal Dearest Grandma, seeing you as if you are here in the American cyberspace with me. You spent thirty-three years in the monastery of your Buddha heart, distinguishing true from false, and so you know I am for the moment sincere. As the lotus pond was full of goldfish, waterlilies, and lotus roots, and as the water was murky, and as the day was long in our Nan-on village. Grandmother, I caught dragonflies in the stillness of the village yard. I gathered snails from the banks of the village pond. The morning glories greeted me as I walked by the graveyard, as if promising those dear to us would live again. And you, Grandma, live now in my conscious, with the colors of blooming chrysanthemums, with the whisper of bee wisps, and with the feel of silk in hot summer. Grandma, you are there when I close my eyes. In the inner space of these decades, closure was smooth skin, and all the garden petals you rubbed abounded. You taught me to see the richness of the heart, not the patches on clothing. You taught me the reciprocity of the hen, as she give me eggs for broken corn. You taught me that heaven does not rain all day, so that it is better to stop when having spoken. Yet, I am to betray you, without my even understanding how.