I'm Ten, Have Lots of Friends and Don't Care

a poem by Marilyn Chin

The old fat man who lived nearer to the neon clock
came down the fire escape only once a year.
He was ugly like Mr. Wang Wei and even worse,
One day he opened up his red baggy pants and said,
"for you, my children, for you."
And sister and me got to milk his bull.
Five years later, we giggled and knew it was wrong.
He was dead now and we shouldn't "blacken a dead man's eye with rocks and lies."
Grandma cursed us for having no heart.
I looked down at my chest and surely she was right.

Sister turns beautiful and moves to the country suddenly.
I'n still ten, have lots of friends and don't care.
Some say the old man died with loneliness and no furniture.
Hie life certainly didn't fit his name which was "Lucky."
God, everybody's name is "Lucky," "Healthy," "Joy," or "Money."
Chinese names are all like that.
Except for sister who moved to the country.
She changed it to Rose and Ma hasn't talked to her since.
Grandma spews four-character phrases and I know
I'll never see my sister again.