People Can Float In The Air Poem by Alisha Cheng

I’ve never seen my grandfather when he was young
When I was born he was a grandpa. It’s so great being a Grandpa
No need to go to school, smoking tobacco, and drinking a little wine
He fixed roads and bridges whenever he had spare time
In my mind, grandmother never aged
She was younger than grandpa by ten and some years
She never had to work in the fields but she made embroidery,
put on makeup, and plucked fine hair off her face. She left this world before she aged
They didn't see their younger selves, in my mind they were never younger than middle-aged
People can float in the air
Mom and dad didn’t have a youthful life
When I first saw my mother, she was a woman
The biggest regret of my life
was that I was never able to see my mother when she was young
If she could be my classmate and sit beside me
Then, I wouldn’t have vandalized so much public property
carving deep lines into the middle of desks
Mom actually grew old for grandma
I’m collecting evidence on how time destroys a woman
Accusing it of the crime of“anti-beauty”I take it to court
But dad was really wearing a broken crotch pants
When he climbed up a willow tree with me to steal birds' eggs
I'm unsure if he collected more birds' eggs than me or not
Once, the bird had desperately pecked at me frantically flapping its wings
As if my childhood was a krait,
climbing a barkless tree, intertwining
The tree, was so big and tall, so wide and broad