Santoku
︎︎︎ Yining Hong
︎ JULY 2, 2022
We never got sad going grocery shopping
yet you now carry a party-size bag of chips on your shoulder
getting mad at paying for bad food after eating too late due to not remembering to get hungry
I blew my nose in my hand and swung snot onto the curb
you said I behave just like your father.
fighting armed with sharp mechanical pencils
I drew a ridiculous snapchat filter across your face
you broke and then everything went back to normal.
To prepare crown daisies for our sukiyaki dinner
you cut them at their stems’ end
and stamped the severed tips across a paper towel
the juice they bled left patterns like roses
yet you now carry a party-size bag of chips on your shoulder
getting mad at paying for bad food after eating too late due to not remembering to get hungry
I blew my nose in my hand and swung snot onto the curb
you said I behave just like your father.
fighting armed with sharp mechanical pencils
I drew a ridiculous snapchat filter across your face
you broke and then everything went back to normal.
To prepare crown daisies for our sukiyaki dinner
you cut them at their stems’ end
and stamped the severed tips across a paper towel
the juice they bled left patterns like roses
Yining Hong is a writer/translator based in Taipei, Taiwan. She relates to air plants as they thrive rootless basking in the sun.
Also by Yining: GRWM