Tiger Girl

‘86 ( 山 )

Either out
of duty or preference,
my mother wants a
son,
not another daughter
and born
in the year of the tiger.

She worries about
the mismatch,
girl and tiger:
restless and deadly,
overwhelming
my father’s rooster.

Time to time, she
blames
the literomancer.
I am
as untamed
as it is,
yet called
a tigress on the loose,
descending
ascending ascending
the mountain in
my name.

I have no
duty to refute
my mother’s belief.

She already sees
my appetite
to escape,
to hunt
for sustenance outside of family,
ungrateful and carnivorous
like a tiger.