appealing

The Maynard
Fall 2017

Laura Yan
0:00
 
 

qualifications

my mother has a way of
repeating herself asks
the same questions
about whether i’m cooking
or cold i tell her not to
expect marriage that i’m
happier alone she’s filled
with untapped potential
young she was pretty
prim and sulky and
younger still my grandma
told her she couldn’t sing
she married my father’s
kindness though she was
much prettier wishes he
had ambition she never
got a college degree told
me i could do anything sent
emails pleading for me to remove
that photo of myself at nineteen
wearing a sheer white gown
in a tiny seaside town she
speaks english with an accent
says politics don’t affect her
though now she jokes about
deportation and when i help
her with a resume after 12 years
still in the same petty law office
making less than i did at my first
office time job i worry they’ll
see her age grammar mistakes
chinese ways and how
they’ll say no.