Flashback to 10 summers ago

To island of my mother
if you call me daughter
with the sing-song lilt of sugar fields
I will gladly call you
home, and hand out red leis
when the time is right

The rice cakes were sticky, plump with goat cheese, filling my mouth with summer. 

Otherwise leave me drowsy 
among maple leaves
lush & green in summertime
I walk in circles
around trimmed city park
filled with blooms for tourists

The ten boxes & luggage were not enough, I wanted to bring the sea with me.   

I never left you motherland
I hand you this poem
pearly white as sand bars
in exchange 
for my tired bones
& wintered tongue

My father's eyes were damp with good-bye tears, but it was our summer of beginnings.

sand bars at Virgin Island Bohol

Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Flashbacks, hosted by Bjorn Rudberg ~
Today is the first day we landed in Canada as immigrants, 10 years ago ~   

Thanks for the visit ~