Author Archives: springpoem

The Loon

We are back in our old home, your old home, and once again, I wake up to the cries of the loon. The sounds always make me think of the story you told my mother, and who then told me, that the loon was lost, and looking for its mother. It matches the mornings of […]


Swallowing

I remember when I was two or three, I had this habit of simply chewing my food, until it lost its flavor, and then not wanting to swallow the empty taste. I remember when I was eating this burger from McDonald’s, and the savoriness of the meat had already been lost. You kept telling me […]


In the Morning

In the morning is when I miss you most. Waking up to the noises of your busy home life, you talking on the phone to your friends, or watching Asian dubbed soap operas, pirated VHS collections from the local Vietnamese rental stores, you chopping or frying the foods we didn’t know we loved until you […]


The Bonsai

A friend gave you a bonsai tree as a birthday present one year. It took him 10 years to grow it. You loved it, the miniature form and wily bends. But you almost destroyed the plant in 10 days, or at least, that’s how it seemed. You let the leaves grow out untamed, natural, bigger […]


Consolation

I had lost a long time confidante, and the loss dangled on me like a swinging chain choking at my throat, alternating between heaviness and numb upswings. You knew this, and knew me, you knew exactly what to say and do. You called me up while I was vacuuming, I was doing anything at the […]


For the Frustrated One

When you were young, you were angry, or impatient, I should say, with foolishness, and b.s. Growing up, and even in my adult life, I am still growing up, you were and are still impatient with me, more frequently back then, than now, but still so at times, you are impatient for me to see […]


The Oriole

You were home for lunch. We were eating in the kitchen nook, where we spotted an oriole, and four doves. You encouraged me to grab a photo with the camera. I tried, albeit halfheartedly, to capture the perfect shot. The bird kept flying away at my mere motions behind the glass. After awhile, I quit […]


Rainy Morning

It’s a lazy, rainy morning, we sleep into the sounds of routine against our window, the rhythmic rain, the cars to work, the people waking and talking to daily patterns. We fight the pull of order and schedules, the monotony of morning, and hold onto the moment and each other. We rest until we are […]


The Tape

Supposedly, somewhere, there is a tape of me when I was three talking, and singing. I think I sung from Snow White which I saw in either the re-release, or on tape, or else, the on ice version, I can’t say which, but I was singing the I’m wishing song, the one where Snow White […]


My Grandma’s Labels

You used to order tons of return address labels. They were for all your letters that you wrote back home, home being anywhere really where there was love. You wrote to family, and to friends, scattered like the roots of your life, across lands and oceans. Those labels always had images of kittens, mickey mouse, […]