mother's tongue

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This inspired-by-real-life poem is a contribution to the 16th STSC Symposium, a monthly collaboration from STSC's writers around a set theme. Our topic for this month is propaganda.

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after my sister was born
her father scolded my mother
for not having had a son.
then he kicked her
so my mother left him
and the country
moving far, far away
to another land.

the court didn’t allow mother 
to bring her daughter with her
so my sister was raised by her father
in his language, the official tongue
and told she’d been abandoned 
by mother.
 
i was born much later
in that far-away land, whose language
my mother didn’t speak
so she taught me the tongue 
she had learned from her own mother
and told stories of my sister,
the daughter in the country 
she’d left behind.

every so often, 
she would call my sister long-distance
and try explaining, in her father’s language, 
(the official tongue)
why she had gone away 
all those years ago

but my sister didn’t believe her
not until years later 
when my mother returned home 
bearing old newspaper clippings
of the court case against her father
reported in his language, 
the official tongue.
only then did my sister comprehend 
what had transpired
all those years ago

now, when I visit sister 
in that faraway land 
I can only speak the unofficial tongue 
handed down from grandmother & mother
while my sister speaks her father’s language,
the official tongue.
sometimes we understand each other
(mostly we don’t) 
but we are nevertheless bound 
by mother’s truth.

shennong street in tainan, taiwan (where i am currently visiting my sister)