by Matilda Z. Halen

I was born in Walla Walla

My father left his sunglasses in Omaha

At the airport

He said, 

I am going back to Russia 

Moscow, Moscow

I hate your mother’s Chinatown and her Sui Sin Far collection  

My child,

You haven’t seen a snowfall with me in America

 

What if we were born in Nebraska

I was ten and you were sixteen

I broke my leg when I was fifteen

You didn’t know me

The girl who cried a lot 

The roses in Nantucket 

Blooming under the sunlight 

Red, white, and blue 

 

My mother took me to Nebraska 

Omaha,Omaha

I saw my first snowfall in America 

I never came back to Walla Walla