A Year's Worth of Reflection - by Michelle Zhang

A year’s worth of reflection

By Michelle Zhang

Forgot? I did—

The nature of your voice

To remember, I searched Through stamps you collected, and

sculpted out Dongyang wood.

Peeked amid

Your garden once tended

Tongue petrified

By skin tiger peppered green,

Wrinkled hook of our nose

God forbid! I recall

Your peace, knowingly begotten rage passed through fatherly flames

Which pushed, pressed onto my juvenility

A silent repetition in dreams,

Yet still I’ve called out west over blue mountains, fearing severance

You’ve looked back,

no sound between

With all hopes lost, I dull my mind

At last, hallucinate one phrase: good night

But once I wake, I lose again

Your voice that I did once

forget.