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Poems on Angel Island
1 min readJun 17, 2018
Poems written by Chinese detainees
on Angel Island in Chinese characters
representing forms of bodies twirling
on their toes, giving off sad and mysterious
whispers. When they confronted me,
they spoke musically and gently;
their curves and voluptuous figures
entranced me, eliciting despondency
from me…
but when I heard those designs,
I only see their individual, convoluted
beauties, distracting me from really
listening to what they said. I admired
their flowing arms, grace and storytelling
filled with lamenting. The characters
were a history, born to scare me,
leaving me feeling haunted
for I didn’t know how to exactly interpret
their desperate messages to me.
