Shasta Bioregion (honoring a San Francisco Area Student)

 

Family

 

Pandas are my nature

Chinese, warm and soft

Minorities in the forest

Of birds, tigers, deer.

The moon in full bloom

Full moon festival

Towering with light

Celebrated through mooncakes

Cut in half

Sweet brown dough

Around a golden-yellow yolk

Like the sun on the horizon.

Juicy smells from the house full of people

Sardines packed in cans

On Chinese New Year’s Eve

Small red envelopes bringing good luck.

Chopped square tofu: Mah-Jongg tiles,

Characters of peace and happiness on the walls.

House washed

Sand by the shore to clean away

Bad memories of the old year.

Fierce, respected dragons, beautiful venerable phoenixes

Mystical authorities of the past

Grandmothers and Grandfathers

who will look after us in the future.

Children of the new: flowers still in bloom

Hear the familiar sounds of the language

Yellow chopsticks dabbing everywhere

Bamboos in the forest.

---

Phoebe Tang, age 14

San Francisco, California

Lowell High School

Teacher: Susan Terence/California Poets in the Schools