I seldom phone you.
I often abruptly interrupt your phone conversation with
‘if nothing important, I gonna hang up, busy.’
My mother, am I your daughter?
I seldom care about how you eat and sleep.
And when you come up to my room, food or tea in your hands urging your child on computer to take them,
I’d just shout out loud, ‘leave me alone!’
My mother, am I your daughter?
Only when I called Lelen* mother on the faraway island,
did I have you on my mind.
My mother, am I your daughter?
Up to you to answer.
But please allow me to dedicate this little poem to you in May,
on this Mother’s Day...
-Swallow Xu, 10 May 2020
*Lelen is my godmother in Saint Martin
Artwork by Rita Edie Lam
