Embrace

(For my father)

A father and a son on Long Island
hug in April by the pond,
The giggles embrace the taste
of the duck food they taste.

The father is the shadow of my father
half blind
who used to walk me to the ferry
20,000 miles away in Hong Kong.
The son is the shadow of my arms
hungry for a father's arms.

After 30 years of cultural mmalnutrition
in arms embracing arms,
My father woke one night from
the brink of blindness
from glaucoma and cataract.

Sleepless,
Until one eye was forever gone,
The other one didn't has long to stay.
He moaned,
What can I do ?

We begun to walk
arm in arm
to every answer
of every hospital,
We cannot guarantee !

We walked half a year
every other day
to ten different hospitals
until a doctor said,
Yes, let's operate.

Now, my father has one bright eye
shines with cheers and teers,
He loves to walk with me arm in arm.

I asked him,
Where do you want to go ?
He smiled,
Just want to walk with you.


April 21, 1991
Stony Brook, New York