Dear Imperial Lotus
Bloom away from muddy water
Train tracks run west to touch east
to connect you back home
San Francisco never had it easy
Roll into the mud
Clay mixture on angel island skin so soothing
Lie on the bridge it shakes
Sun kiss sun burn
Clouds
pinned to the sky
莲花 can’t touch home
We hug walls of the tunnel
Golden candles light our way
Roots torn when lifted
out of the Middle Kingdom earth
implanted elsewhere
美籍华人 bloom from 血统 drops
你是中国人吗？
Code for
are you one of us?
你是哪国人？
Code for
what are you? Where are you from?
Rare hybrid, 南美
Beckons la flor de loto to face el sur
tongues tumble
dance to catch unfamiliar tones
Tierra de Ensueño, de Luz y de Amores
梅花 florecen
at the edges of 西湖
soft purples paint pictures en sus palmas
celestial reflection never to fade
the scent of wind changes
changes porque el viento
envelops you in light
那些花儿 fill every 角落
fragrance filled asks
will you come home this year?
porque mi sombra no toca
those borders of your homeland
Cachipay está muy lejos de aquí
fruit quenches little
where rhythm breaks that silence
we all hold so dear
because people say
they don’t care for perfection
but they are lying
Kintsukuroi Blossoms
What boils
Brews and steams
Lost memories don’t
loosen their grip on the imagination
Body breaks
Breaks dishes one evening
Together repaired with cracks
Just visible enough to warn others
Something happened here
Full of forethought
Wind pushes circuits together
Sharp edges bend, bow, surrender to
Disjoined branches of the ancestral tree
Full force
Whirlwind
Heat
Combine to combat
failed system within failed system
Do you break?
Emperatriz Ung is a Chinese-Colombian game designer & writer from the American Southwest. She was a fellow at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Justice in 2015. Her creative work predominantly explores her personal struggles with mental health, teen motherhood, and generational trauma. Follow her on Twitter at @mprtrzng.