tip tap / A Dream Across the Ocean
Zenita Yang, Chancie Chou | Art by Torsia Xu
headlights flash
rampant at midnight in New York City restless cars and pedestrians
itching to outrun the other
tourists graze the streets
forgetting their troubles
while basking in the sound of Alicia Keys on the loudspeaker
tip tap
hovering above buildings
steps bury in a frenzy
of neverending traffic
tip tap
the shuffling of feet slows
sound absorbs in pavement
in the city that never rests
TAINAN, TAIWAN – 1999
「我想去美國。」 I wish to go to America.
「你瘋了嗎？」 Are you crazy?
they spoke of drowning
set foot off the warm sand,
into the ocean of midnight’s blue,
and you might as well be dead.
they spoke of peril
to leave behind twenty-nine years carved in wood,
just to start over in a new country?
to risk drudgery for only a chance of opportunity?
they spoke of disappointment
to say you seek honor to your family
by depositing an ocean of separation?
foolishness.
they spoke of perpetuity
your blood has sunk deep in these soils,
your tears plastered salty against the stone floors
this is your only home.
they spoke of distance
bridges, you may forge
but bridges do not traverse the seas.
broken connections pierce like shattered glass– irremediable.
they spoke of regret
suppose, there is nothing to be found on the other side,
but squandered time, chasing after clouded rainbows,
nothing but illusions, shadows of a dream you once had?
she was told not to go.
CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. – 2003
but dreams resurface even after words rain down
perhaps, even a storm would only fuel her raging waters.
and now, the ocean sits serenely behind her,
as her foot falls in the lands once pictured in an old dream,
now the dawn of a new beginning.