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Finalist for the 2014 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award
Zhou Ling
My wedding portrait lies.
Glamorous beguiling smiling bride wearing
wedding cheongsam of brilliant scarlet satin
embroidered in lavish glittering gold
skimming angular curves, western bridegroom’s arm
loosely draping narrow silken shoulders
flanked by many far flung Fujianese cousins and by
small stooped parents who,
even arrayed in festive attire seem to
scurry and worry
I have become utterly other. Child
who daily covered her ears to quiet the din, child
who daily squinted her eyes to dim the squalor, child
who daily dutifully followed father to the shops,
the child has become the other -
Gentile wife to Orthodox Jew
Asia, meet Europe. China, meet Germany.
Dim sum, meet kreplach.
Eyes, meet eyes.
I have fashioned our family.
Tiger mother to a violinist, a chemist
prominent exceptional Asians
Parent to perfection itself but who,
as daughter did her damnedest to be
the furthest from flawless and now
smooth assimilated offspring to
impossibly immigrant parents and
heretic helpmeet to reverent husband
My wedding portrait lies.
We are more alike than people imagine,
my Jewish husband and I.
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This poem is included in my chapbook from Finishing Line Press.
You can order the book on Amazon.com or here:
Windows and a Looking Glass by Deborah Kahan Kolb