Roy Zhu / 朱若忆
A bloodline’s length of longing
And a losing silence.
A cherry tree in bloom
And a balding cypress.
A woman sits at work
And a child gazes up.
Poison in the pipes
And poison in the blood.
Waking to the rooster
Crying just enough.
Sleeping while the train
Rumbles on above.
Snow melts and memory
Flow past my fingertips
Do I still remember
The place I used to live?
And will my mother’s blessing And will my mother’s song
Live past my own forgetting, Join rhymes to common tongue?
Roy Zhu / 朱若忆 is a first-year from Braintree, Massachusetts studying Environmental Science and Creative Writing.