Lauren Lin
“I am Lauren Lin, a sixteen-year old sophomore in high school. I write poetry to express the veiled aspects of my mind that may not be clear to me until written in verse. I believe in the power of poetry to both inspire and connect individuals from all walks of life. I hope my poems will serve as solace, hope, and kinship to everyone. “I am” describes my ancestry and my deep connection to my grandma, who exemplifies everything I hope to become.”
Poem on Belonging
I AM
I am. From the bloated harvest moon Peeking behind its silken veil At the splattered scarlet below Running in the tears sown Pooled at the fissure of flesh And the splinter of hearts Beating to the rhythm of war And a family’s scattered shards From the mirror once intact Once holding light And a youth that burned With the twist of the urn I am. From molded chrysalis Her wings bent, crumpled And a childhood missed Drowned in the abyss As swords hacked the fields The glint of the silver eel Slithering up golden and green One more life sealed But she rose again For meager wages In the battle waged Her mother’s life to save I am. From her. Grandma. Her footprints in the sand Leading from China hues To a New World of old sorrow Another slap of fate’s backhand For even in the Land of Dreams Were the torn seams Of her ripped hope In the fingers of all she’d seen I am. From more than torn words And her marriage to misery And her losses to death I’m from the seeds she buried. The life she planted A garden of promise Amid storms and mist And her shriveled chrysalis It grows still With all the memories she poured And the steel in her will Her gaze up the windowsill For I am The peeking harvest moon Holding Grandma in its hands Beaming harmonies to her hope As always it stands. I am.
Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Lin. Used with permission of the author.
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