Gwyn Browning
My Cantonese Princess
For two years I waited
For two years fated
To long for a little sister
Hope never sated
The visits testing
The caution nesting
The mind of my family not delusional
Put minds to resting
China beckons with small hands
My self, left in familiar lands
The time for my sister’s rescue
The sun rising in the east with golden bands
Left to night, doomed to ponder
Mother’s heart, would it be fonder
Of a baby’s heart and need
My thoughts a ceaseless wonder
The phoenix came with scarlet rays
Home again, the plane lays
On a bed of ebony asphalt
Passengers going separate ways
My neck stretches to see around shoulders
The flow of people like treacherous boulders
But one pair carrying a bundle in loving arms
A smile alights made of the finest molders
I stare at the bundle not sure
My mother knowing the cure
Unfolds the edges to let me see
A baby’s face full of allure
A tuft of black silk, a crown
A round face, soft brown
And black eyes that sparkle with life
A mouth poised in thoughtful frown
So etched is the memory in me
Like the song of a morning Phoebe
I listen for her laugh and lifting song
She is the only sight I see 2
We are two races
Born of two faces
My Cantonese Princess
Our love, a tapestry forever laces