Once Upon a Time
there was a young man
whose father passed away
leaving him three million
a cloud floats over
a volcano that erupts
in the midst of a lake
a girl in a violet dress
believed in setting standards
for herself and her work
a deer feeds in the garden
of a red house on a hill
as flood water recedes
they met each other through
the young man’s elder sister
in her emerald cheongsam
a stingray with moon drops
on its back is found
by children on a beach
four hundred guests drank
to their joy at their wedding
in a hotel ballroom
a bird with a turquoise tail
rests on a balcony rail
fragrant with white peonies
two babies came in three years
and the woman left her job
to take better care of them
an alpaca in beige
decides to keep its fleece
in spite of the summer heat
the man worked very hard
from sunrise to midnight
for almost forty years
a bed of coral fossils
revives when a family
of sea dragons move in
the children became adults
their parents died and left
each of them three million
a branch grows towards the sky
from a tree two thousand years old
fallen on the forest grass
Watching My Husband Sleep
Almost inevitably, I am awake
in a strange hotel wondering
if the sun will rise
before our window as you sleep …
The first time in Paris on our honeymoon,
I watched fireworks on New Year’s Eve
from our balcony in your dreams …
A few years later, I woke up
in Cambridge to read Jin Yong,
you still sound asleep beside me.
An evening in Sapporo, from far above,
I marked skiers returning, tiny shadows
under stadium lights on snow.
And on the Nile before sunrise,
from our dark cabin, I spied on
chefs in the next boat baking bread.
Another night in a Frankfurt suite,
with a living room like a home,
I suddenly realised I meant nothing
to anyone in that city, except you ...
So many times, when we travel,
just the two of us, I feel I am not
there—as we pause to look at maps,
queue up for tickets for musicals,
rest before paintings in museums …
Every time after a journey, it is you
who will reconstruct our memories,
tell our stories in albums, CDs …
It is also you who introduced me to
Milan Kundera, Haruki Murakami,
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Ismail Kadare …
And when you are home, there is music—
Rachmaninov, Brothers Four, Yanni,
George Winston, Enya, Laura Fygi …
You also showed me Cinema Paradiso …
After seeing Zorba the Greek, I said,
‘Fortunately, you married me.’
This morning, as I watch you sleep—
from your head to your toes, you are
only five feet plus how many inches …
… and it is possible for me to believe
one can bond with dimensions beyond
the space and time of a body …
This morning, we are in London again—
When you wake, we will walk to
Hyde Park to sit before the Serpentine
like so many times before …