Dissident Song: A Contemporary Asian American Anthology (1991)

Mildred Chong-Lau

Mother owns no cracked porcelain.
Her sheets smell like
daybreaking.
A virtuous Confucian, she
never baked a cookie in her life.

When I am sick, she makes me
walk over fire while she and aunty
sing the old songs.
They put a shoulder bone of sheep
with questions on it to a coal
just to hear the gods think.

Day 4: #TheSealeyChallenge