I don\u2019t have any specific memories
\nfrom when I was a child in Hong Kong,
\njust scraps of phrases and old photographs.
\nScents and flavours, like the chocolate candy
\nfilled with strawberry bubbles.<\/p>\n
I do remember
\nwhen I ate it for the first time, again.<\/p>\n
How its sweetness transported me back
\nto the green house in its heydays,
\nlychee trees in the gardens.
\nTwo great-aunts at my beckoning.
\nThe ice cream I would fetch twice a day,
\nI used to know my way around the village\u2019s tricky alleyways.<\/p>\n
Though in the early Summer heat the ice was more welcome,
\nit is the chocolate that unlocked my memories
\nand got me back to that patch of ground in the New Territories.
\nThough not a golden pastry in the shape of a boat,
\nnot a madeleine, but a pearl in the mouth of the river delta,
\nI now rediscover treasures I never knew I lost.<\/p>\n
Like that walk on the piers at night
\nI only know because of the picture at my grandparents\u2019 place
\non the nightstand next to my bed.
\nThese photographs of old tell stories, show our care.<\/p>\n
I discovered my great aunt kept a picture of my little sister, I don\u2019t have any specific memories from when I was a child in Hong Kong, just scraps of phrases and old photographs. Scents and flavours, like the chocolate candy filled with strawberry bubbles. I do remember when I ate it for the first time, again….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2465,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5206,2376,2402],"class_list":["post-113721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2022hour9","tag-hour9","tag-hournine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113733,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113721\/revisions\/113733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfinding her in the small red house brought back to me
\nfeelings of being home amidst a family of strangers.
\nCome back again<\/em>, she said.
\nAnd despite our linguistic distances,
\nI promised her
\nI would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"