English on Paper Cards
“he has something special to show me he’s holding a paper card in his hands shyly he shows me his scribbling it’s English on paper cards”
Art by Miles Huynh
the summers are sweltering in sydney
and as usual, he greets me at the front door
ready to eat the lunch i had neglected for the games of bullrush on the oval
today
he has something special to show me
he’s holding a paper card in his hands shyly
he shows me his scribbling
it’s English on paper cards
he speaks quietly and softly
i’m not sure what he’s asking, i tell him
“4 tomatoes please” he punctuates these three words with clarity and confidence he explains
he is going down to the road to the fruit & vege shop
he is going to buy tomatoes
with the English he is learning on paper cards
the tomatoes
that will go into the stir-fry with fish sauce
its pungent fumes that will suffocate the kitchen
it smells like home, it is home
the tomatoes
melting with the tofu and sliced purple onion
he knows this recipe all too well, he’d seen his mother cook it a million times and now
he makes it
for us
he is simply doing this
for us
i watch as he walks down the road
his figure exhausted by the weight of being a foreigner
but filled with love of the family he has been longing to meet in a world where he only exists
for us
in a world where he also writes
English on paper cards