This is the first poem in the novel Inside Out & Back Again.
Today is Tết,
the first day
of the lunar calendar.
Every Tết
we eat sugary lotus seeds
and glutinous rice cakes.
We wear all new clothes,
even underneath.
Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year.
Everyone must smile
no matter how we feel.
No one can sweep,
for why sweep away hope?
No one can splash water,
for why splash away joy?
Today
we all gain one year in age,
no matter the date we were born.
Tết, our New Year’s,
doubles as everyone’s birthday.
Now I am ten, learning
to embroider circular stitiches,
to calculate fractions into percentages,
to nurse my papaya tree to bear many fruits.
But last night I pouted
when Mother insisted
one of my brothers
must rise first
this morning
to bless our house
because only male feet
can bring luck.
An old, angry knot
expanded in my throat.
I decided
to wake before dawn
and tap my big toe
to the tile floor
first.
Not even Mother,
sleeping beside me, knew.
February 11
Tết
the first day
of the lunar calendar.
Every Tết
we eat sugary lotus seeds
and glutinous rice cakes.
We wear all new clothes,
even underneath.
Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year.
Everyone must smile
no matter how we feel.
No one can sweep,
for why sweep away hope?
No one can splash water,
for why splash away joy?
Today
we all gain one year in age,
no matter the date we were born.
Tết, our New Year’s,
doubles as everyone’s birthday.
Now I am ten, learning
to embroider circular stitiches,
to calculate fractions into percentages,
to nurse my papaya tree to bear many fruits.
But last night I pouted
when Mother insisted
one of my brothers
must rise first
this morning
to bless our house
because only male feet
can bring luck.
An old, angry knot
expanded in my throat.
I decided
to wake before dawn
and tap my big toe
to the tile floor
first.
Not even Mother,
sleeping beside me, knew.
February 11
Tết
Haha. Breaking the rules and doing things anyway! I love that spirit.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem.
ReplyDeleteDoes the girl believe in the luck? Is she protesting to bring bad luck to spite her mother? Or is she trying to prove something about herself or women? Either way, I love nonconformists.
Everybody is celebrating Chinese New Years in Honolulu this weekend. 2017- The year of the Rooster! I didn't realize how much tradition is stapled inside of the Chinese traditions- even living in this East/West state of Hawaii. Everytime I think about anything political- which, for the record, is maybe once a year, it always comes back to "tradition"...other cultures are so very much colored in this aspect- tradition is uniting- America seems to attract the uniting of all other cultures so that they can live in freedom, but be separate. Perform their own homeland cultures, but do it in the way they want to do it freely. So, I suppose, America's cultures is to let everyone do whatever on earth it is they want to do....wild.
ReplyDeletesoo i need to do a school assignment and need setting and i think the whole story is in a house
ReplyDeleteSetting is time and place. Look up Tet if you don't know anything about Veitnam. That will help you understand the setting better.
DeleteI love this poem. I think it is really neat and I am about to be reading Inside Out and Back Again and I am looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteLoved the poem really an amazing work of art.
ReplyDelete