“Bai gaa fo la!” I blurted as she claimed her winning chips. She squealed in delight.
Read MoreWhat I won playing poker
in Prose
Prose
Elegy for a Wet-Winter Morning
in Prose
I point vaguely at the large characters running down the middle of the gravestone, what I imagine to be the Chinese equivalent of “Here lies so-and-so…” Where is his name?
Read MoreThe Family Zodiac
in Visual Art, Prose
To me, family portraits of zodiac animals seemed to neglect certain aspects of my family’s characterization. ... A painting of an animal can only express so much of that change.
Read MoreClipped Wing
in Prose
Fear is a goldfinch tattooed on my collarbone. It perches on my clavicle, flitters here and there.
Read MoreDeath’s Summer, Democracy’s Fall
in Prose
We Americans are manifestly no longer a family, not even of the most fractious kind.
Read MoreFamily rules
I hem, ahem, haw, um, shelling the peas in my mouth before spitting out
Hey, I wanted to tell you this
They Say My Father
in Prose
Look into his pupils and see them brighten when he looks at his family, when he looks at me.
Read MoreReasons
in Visual Art, Prose
So here’s what I got, the reasons why our family might still work out
...
5. Because each day my father spends five minutes in his car before coming back inside.
6. Because he comes back.
Notes on My Grandmother
in Prose
I sometimes read essays by people like me, pieces about grandparents and not being able to speak their language, and I have a similar confession to make, that, for similar reasons, I did not love my grandmother.
Read MoreEROSION (A Mother's Love)
in Prose
The universe has a funny way of showing signs to us. The waves of life had worn my mother down so much that she was finally but a grain of sand upon the beach, that she finally became sick enough for the world to see.
Read MoreIs There a Right Way to Die?
in Prose
My mom is dying.
Is there a right way to die?
There seems to be… right?