by Jenny Wong
For forty years, she heard voices speak to her in foreign tongues. Her immigration to this white shrouded land of snow and ghosts was greeted by lessons in menial labor and cash under the table.
She rinsed sinful wrinkles from hotel bed sheets, scrubbed smoky demons from greasy restaurant corners, never having the time to learn much more than a few greetings, numbers, and the names of favorite foods.
Her daughters gathered new words like wildflowers, spilling the seed of their thoughts, and she prayed that they would sprout and root where she could not.
Over the years, she salvaged sounds and scraps of phrases, creating a string of words which passed between her lips over and over like worn rosary beads.
Yes. No. Please. Thank-you.
Excuse me. Sorry.
Where is –
What is –
Why –
Jenny Wong is a writer, traveler, and occasional business analyst. Her favorite places to wander are Tokyo alleys, Singapore hawker centers, and Parisian cemeteries. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net Anthology, Best Small Fiction Awards, and The Forward Prize – Best Single Poem (Written). In Spring 2024, her debut poetry chapbook ‘Shiftings & Other Coordinates of Disorder’ was published by Pinhole Poetry. She resides in Canada near the Rocky Mountains. Find her on Twitter(X) @jenwithwords.
Emerge Literary Journal 