Inspired by Tiana Clark’s “My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work”
I love you.
I hate you.
I become
You.
I am the product of
generations. You remind me.
You carry me on your shoulders.
I carry you on my shoulders. I
grow up with your love — I have new clothes.
I have cut fruit. I have clean room.
I have neat bed. I have
grown up with your love — I buy new clothes.
I cut my fruit. I clean my room.
I make neat bed. I love
learning piano when no one is watching.
I love learning when no one is watching.
I math when no one is watching. I code.
I chores. I physics, writing, piano,
achievement when you are not watching.
Your eyes turn to me, play five times over, faster!
Disappointment when you are watching.
I carry your expectations. I drop them.
Then flaunt them. Then lose them. Pick them up again. Five times over!
You are not watching me. I swallow them.
I crush them in my esophagus. They taste
Like near perfect gaokao grades and
shiny piano trophies.