I want to understand the forces
unfurling in a hurricane, but must
be content in my sheer ignorance.
I come to my same favorite place
one day to write, and the power
is gone. Then I come with
huge new ideas and want to
write like--well, like the wind--
and the wind has come up,
hurricane-like, and my penmanship
turns to scribble-pictures on paper.

I hide behind my truck and
behind a silver trash barrel,
but this hurricane wraps around
with a power no one can avoid.
The important things I have
reserved for saying, how will
they get said? At least, they're
not surfacing in this
day's storm-upset thinking.

Six Chinese kids lift
their heads above the
bluff where I look at angry
water. They wave to me.
I nod, but my hands grasp
the flapping paper tablet.
I hear their song-like tongue,
a chorus mixed with groaning gusts.
There is too much wind
coming from the west, from
the direction of China, so far away.

This is a fabricated
Fairytale
Our days tumbled dry
Laundry
Those memories a draught
In our city
I am but cracked china
Ruined

I know you think about me on the way home
I know you think I want to be alone
I'm accustomed to calling on the phone
I'm accustomed to making it on my own
But I've dreamt of places you've roamed
I see the same passionate soul
You've romanced me in your loving tone
Your fiery moan, your satisfying groan,
And with it a price, mortality a loan
So my eyes I have sewn,
To my porcelain skin and my doll-like bones,
My true light has shone-
China Doll, a title for the throne.
I can be yours if only you would know, Just know if you break me you can never let me go.

My heart feels ache
For souls I hardly knew
Our boundaries we had to break
In order to see our hearts grew
Into orchards of Cherry Blossoms

Never have we before taken this journey
To have the chance to cut through
The social stigma our lands placed
On a country know for the power of its army
Regardless of the Problems
We Faced

Our adventure knew pure excitement
and Serenity
Even in our darkest hour
Many were surprised I was one of enlightenment
Which only makes the essence of my identity
Much deeper

This power
We feel sheds tears
To Allow for Magnolias to Grow and Wave
For a Chinese Goodbye
In hopes we meet again
When the tree has grow

Bound for lands far in the East
Never have our hands touched
Our eyes barely knew each other
Only a couple of us knew another's name
Fewer recognized our voices

In its Land of Power
As we wandered the grounds
Of a city hoping to earn the winter 5 Rings
We knew joy
We knew laughter
We knew beauty
Unlike what our home lands held

But in our final hours in the city of Beijing
A poison seeped into our morning feast
Which quickly took its toll
A few thousand feet in the Air
As we fell into the city of Western Peace

Our plans became shattered
Few of us barely survived
As our own bodies lost control
We were at the mercy of our own insides

Somehow the two state namesakes were the Worst

Taken to the hospital
If it were not for the group mothers and guides
We would have been among the dead
We saw rolled in front of us
As our medicine was entering our blood
Through needles in our hands

In the midst of what we've come to call
The Xi'an Incident
I saw a glimmer of a rare soul
One full of kindness
Intelligence
And freedom
A type of rare Golden Soul I've come to admire
That lied within the body of the other state

My actions may have been interpreted as
The essence of the White Snake
On some level, maybe it was
But in truth
My gift from Shanghai
To whisper an appropriate goodbye
Was to thank her for pushing me along when times were rough

I am thankful for all that were with me on that trip
And I do hope to see her, and everyone again.

Like I told her in a note I left,
Maybe Hoopa will help make sure
We meet again

He Lead the Chinese people against the Imperialist Japanese
Chiang symbolized China's resistance against Japan
In 1938 he received the title of Tsung -tsai (party leader)

For 8 years he kept 2/3 of the Chinese people
And 3/4 of the  Chinese land
Free of the Japanese
He was fighting a defensive war
Against a more powerful Japanese army

He believed in one China
In his life
He hoped to restore the unity of China

Committed to Confucianism
A united strong prosperous stable society
Is achieved by freeing up the industrious economy

A mixed economy
With a strong central government
With noble firm leaders
Keeping control

His vision of China is reflected in modern china
Much more than Mao's
He hoped for a modern Confucian China


His vision is closer to China than Taiwan

The interview asked," Would the Chinese people be better off
If Chiang had won and ruled instead of Mao?"

Yes, the thirty million people would not have died
And China would not have suffered the setbacks
In their education and economy

What I Wanted to Wear for Halloween

…is not what you wanted me to wear for Halloween.
I wanted to be one of those girls in the comic books,
spinning around in high-heeled boots, high-strung ponytails, and miniskirts.
You convinced me to be Mulan.
It was the 90’s, after all.
And she was pretty cool. I guess.
I loved it more when I realized she had a sword. I planned to cut my hair with it.
But when I asked for her sword, you handed me a fan, told me to have fun with my friends.
My best friend wore a real kimono that year – all thick and purple and bright –
her father brought it back from Japan.
We were both Mulan. I guess.
But she loved her fan and silk and uppy hair up-do.
Mine had already taken a tumble for the worse.
And that is exactly what I see, many years later, as I stare in the mirror – finally in my boots.
I keep them on when I sit at the keyboard and type in her name
M-U-L-A-N
The truth comes after H-U-A
After twelve years of fighting, and dying, and winning, and fighting by her side,
China didn’t even know she was a woman.
They couldn’t have cared less at all.

Again the sky
Takes good-byes,
And I heave one
Once again.

Good-bye.

When you quipped
Ciao so flippantly,
Or rolled au revoir
So knowingly;
When See ya
Really meant
See ya soon,
I heard it all
So promisingly.
When you said
Later, it meant
Sooner than later,
And you drawled it out
So wistfully,
Knowing sooner
Lovingly.

This time
Come back
And say
Good-bye again.

Good-bye,
My girl,
For now.