There’s a war going on just underneath my skin
a quiet, harrowing war of the unspeakable
a war unfought. Never lost, never won
A mole under my left eye, eternal tear
weeping for a flock of Japanese soldiers
who killed my husbands but spared my skin
Under my knee, a gash from a weary fall
of grandfathers who marched to their death
then lived to see their liberation from the Japanese
Dynasties of fabric seeking the perfect lotus
feet bend my arches into breaking, making
each step excruciating
On my left cheek, a disapproving brother’s signature
marked in acid, proud announcement to the world
little sister is a dirty girl not worthy of dowry
Beneath my breasts, lungs damaged in the fall
down the well in the woods when fathers
wanted only Chinese baby boys
A thousand bastard mongrel babies fathered by friars
cysts in my left ovary now severed by a doctor
marking forever the female parts of my childless body
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