Why do they scoff at Hmong Khis Tes:

Hand Tying with white strings

at weddings and other celebrations

to hold a person’s soul together

to shield them from evil spirits

 

Do they scoff because

Wiccans or Pagans did it

Millennials ago:

Tying hands together

Binding two lives?

 

Frontier America did it

America today does it:

Tie hands together

 

Symbol for binding two lives,

sacrificing persons for a pair?

Or metaphor for getting caught

in a snare without escape?

In this life together?

Or damnation without separate lives?

Contract for eternity?

Or united until the knots fail?

 

Or are they heart strings

Binding two people in love

instead of knots