the urge to look at
and to look away from him
scolding his boy
near the candy shelf ... this flushed face
of my six-year-old self
calling from Taiwan
my mother cries, laughs and cries ...
peeling back
layers of memories
about my stubborn childhood
waking yet not quite ...
in the dawnlight through the gap
between curtains
mother holds my six-year-old self
as father fades into darkness
