Make your heart small.”
Chinese proverb for girl-children
Wind and mountain, wave and rock: Tua Ehm,
First Uncle’s hard-headed wife, said bad feng shui
Did us in. The door opening to a T-road
To thieving peddlers, beggars, and children.
The missing mirror in which demons
Of strangers could have been plucked
And scared away. Such was the luck
I had never learned, to make the entrance
Crooked, my feed bound, and heart
Small. I have walked away from Chinese
Fortune-telling. Crossed the big water,
Married a big nose. Now my American house
Is empty of children. It too will part
In pockets of ghosts, hosted by strangers.