– Home
– Issues
– Submit
– About

TPC Review Issue 003

Allison Wei

Genesis (I write a new name for myself)
   after Matthew Wong’s A Walk through a Primordial Garden

it began with palm fronds, qing cai, blue hills
a rooster crowing a beginning into existence
the alchemy of my mother’s childhood

it began with longing for ocean and
absent fathers and
reading your way into the future —
not knowing the language in shanghai
a legacy of speechlessness:    my father

      even now I am trying to find the words
      even now I circle with the silence

it began with peonies and noodle soup
neighbors guzzling sparkling apple cider
the sound of sparklers though you fear
your fingers will aflame: catch fire, catch flight

     I still try to recreate that feeling now

the feeling of cutting soft tofu:
a knife smooth and slick
green onion, garlic, and ginger sizzling:

     this is what it means to be a mother
     this is what it means to feed yourself

it began with
the long way home
sun setting
matthew wong’s garden of eden:
no greens and blues
only   red   yellow    orange

a quartet for the end of time          r
somewhere,                u   n
a silence                 b     i
                        n
                       g