Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Antisemitism review puts universities, festivals, and cultural centres under threat
    • Macquarie University axes Sociology, cuts more jobs & courses
    • UTS elects new Chancellor
    • Out of the Deep: The Story of a Shark Kid Who Dared to Question Fear
    • Prima Facie: Losing faith in a system you truly believed in
    • Jason Clare seeks replacement for ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop after $790,000 expense report
    • ‘If you silence someone or shush someone, you can get out’: SISTREN is an unabashed celebration of black and trans joy. Is Australia ready?
    • Mark Gowing waxes lyrical on aesthetics, time, language, and his new exhibition ‘This one is a song’
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Saturday, July 12
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»Creative

    Sweetness and Rot

    Four poems
    By Emma CaoOctober 21, 2019 Creative 3 Mins Read
    Persimmons, chrysanthemum buds, lilies and mangosteens
    Art by Emma Cao
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Vinasun 8:39pm 

    Ask politely, taxi man
    I’ll let you call me foreign.

    I’ll open my mouth wide & stretch out my tongue,
    let calloused thumbs drag over pink gums
    & sharp knuckles crack yellow teeth. 

    Non-native, overseas,
    Taxi man reaches his arm down my throat
    and tucks his verdict in my stomach. 

    In the rear-view mirror there has always been two of us
    the known and the unknown
    riding along this temporary moment.

     

    You are not your own

     From mother to daughter
    I inherit crucifix
    after crucifix.

    Virgin Mary pierces her heart
    with seven sorrows to bleed
    the blood of the covenant,

    mẹ weeps unceasingly at night, in the scent
    of olive oil & balsam like Mystical Rose,
    but joy comes with the mornings,

    and I dance resignedly between
    temptation & deliverance
    for the sake of sorrowful passion, 

    as these binding memories
    promise me that I am
    only ever a part of,
    and parts of. 

     

    Chrysanthemum blossoms

    My mother shows me
    there is love in waiting.

    She brings home pink lilies
    that have not yet bloomed,
    and makes tea from dried
    chrysanthemums.

    Flower head,
    noble roots,
    sweet aroma,

    be gentle when you touch the soft petal.
    Your skin understands first
    that there is fresh air after a rain shower,
    and love in waiting.

     

    A Sanctuary in Coming and Going (Terminal 3) 

    In summer, mẹ likes this
    place most. For her, there is a warmth
    that cascades through sealed windows
    and solace in staring idly at white walls. 

               Don’t you know? A woman’s grace
               is carried in the shoulders. Hers
               bloom black and blue bruises hidden
               by silk. 

     Mẹ ơi, prop your feet
    on your polyester suitcase
    stuffed with yearning and
    ache since last summer. 

               She eats persimmon misshapen with
               sweetness and rot, tears flesh from
               skin with naked thumbs, and lets the
               juice and meat sit in her fingernails.

    In this suspension of coming
    and going, my mother remembers a rhythm
    in the shuffle of strangers, and recalls hope
    she once found in dark tunnels. 

               Her sweat pours and eyelids stretch tears
               only in the lonely absence of light,
               as she mourns the ripeness of summers past,
               the going and the gone.

    diaspora emma cao poetry vietnam vietnamese diaspora

    Keep Reading

    Review: ‘Koreaboo’ at Belvoir St Theatre

    I Have Read Little, and Understood Less

    Bird Vignettes

    A Small Inventory

    hung parliament (we never asked to be so star-crossed)

    Vindications of an Aesthete

    Just In

    Antisemitism review puts universities, festivals, and cultural centres under threat

    July 11, 2025

    Macquarie University axes Sociology, cuts more jobs & courses

    July 11, 2025

    UTS elects new Chancellor

    July 8, 2025

    Out of the Deep: The Story of a Shark Kid Who Dared to Question Fear

    July 8, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    Part One: The Tale of the Corporate University

    May 28, 2025

    “Thank you Conspiracy!” says Capitalism, as it survives another day

    May 21, 2025

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.