Asking for My Mother’s Portrait
After Sophia Stid
T. Le
in which
she hands me a mirror
The mirror understood: obsidian eyes to match
obsidian hair
Face
coiling into a womb of mis—
pronounced names
Syllables stuck
in teeth
aligned to be forgotten
A crevice
for eulogy
when this tongue cracks
more
than the callous body
Become
Become the echo
And survive
Survive
T. Le is a Vietnamese American artist. Her art traces the experience of homeland, language, and memory. A finalist for the BLR Spring 2022 Poetry Contest, her poetry appears in SWWIM, Somewhere We Are Human Anthology, and elsewhere. Her art can be found at www.hellotle.com.
