Pauline Chu

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Portals

When I was six, I read the Joy Luck Club—
pages well-loved, school-read,
covered in cobwebs, creases, and

something ancient.
A memory that was not mine
hung on me like Spanish moss:

rocked on a boat with empty eyes;
wailing mouths swallowed by the wind;
broken lines in a refugee camp in Arkansas;

I saw my blood humming beneath my palms,
too small to contain the words I drank,
yet parched for those tea-stained pages

I didn't know then what I know now—
that in those stories, I searched for my mother
and found her sleeping in the past

Pauline Chu is a Vietnamese American poet from California. She aspires to write about the space between borders, both mental and physical. A recipient of Grubstreet scholarship, her work has been featured in numerous publications including eMerge Magazine, Pensive Journal, and Tendrils Journal. She co-hosts the arts & culture podcast Book Feels and is also affiliated with Mass Poetry and Cambridge Insight Meditation Center. She currently resides in Somerville, MA.