PLEASE TELL ME THIS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER
chapel street shifts pitch deep winter;
its edges, sharper its scents brighter, brittle
like peppermint ……………. or bone
.
where fever …. bush frozen
berry holly reaches its thorns to bristle
my fingers with its bitter tang
…………………………………. where deep—
.
beneath …. permafrost and
rust and dirty snow slush lies … me
…….. covered, cold in remnants of
an old white school song
.
…………………………………. our home
and native land ……………. haunting
my memory of spring.
Ellen Chang-Richardson (she/her) is an award-winning poet of Taiwanese and Cambodian Chinese (or Chinese Cambodian) descent. As the daughter of a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, she’s still trying to figure that second part out. The author of three poetry chapbooks, including snap, pop, performance (Gap Riot Press), her writing has appeared in Room, third coast magazine, and Watch Your Head, among others. She currently lives and works on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. Find her online at https://ehjchang.com.
(Author photo by Manahil Bandukwala)
This poem was originally published in Vallum issue 18:1 Invisibility.
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Vallum: Contemporary Poetry 