Xiaoly Li
A Small Goddess
This freshly store-made
tofu we stumble upon,
grassy, nutty,
melts in the mouth.
That purple corn,
chewy, earthy—
your favorite,
the stubborn root
woven deep in us.
I don’t mind a pilgrimage
to scattered shrines for specialties:
Costco for wild mushrooms,
plump with rain,
and jackfruit chips that crackle—unleashed;
H-Mart’s tilapia,
silver-scaled for steaming,
chives’ biting memory folded
into dumplings.
For you, these wheeled offerings—
our second chance to lift
the weight we carry.
Redo those years—
I was an ocean away
when you learned to walk.
Here, I pull this new green cooler for you.
You’ve chosen now,
to create like a goddess—
my first granddaughter—
from the marrow of old grief,
even her cry, a raw bell’s toll,
summons smiles.
In her,
your apple face,
curled hands, untested eyes—
I cannot turn away.
Xiaoly Li is a recipient of a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Grant, her poetry collection Every Single Bird Rising (FutureCycle Press, 2023) was a Zone 3 Book Award finalist. Her forthcoming collection Wakening Between Worlds (Serving House Books) was short-listed for the 2024 Cinnamon Literature Award, a finalist for the 2023 Diode and 2024 Washington Prize, and she’s been nominated for Best New Poets, five Pushcarts, and four Best of the Net.