My Job Is My Own

Reading Ngo Tu Lap's Poems, Terrible Nostalgia Wells Up In Me- Nostalgia For A Lost Time And A Far-gone Country, Nostalgia For People I've Loved, And For Creatures Of Forests And Rivers. I Feel Gratitude Too. War Is Over. Peace Arrives With These Beautiful Poems.

When We Chinese Girls Listened To The Adults Talk-story, We Learned That We Failed If We Grew Up To Be But Wives Or Slaves. We Could Be Heroines, Swordswomen. Even If She Had To Rage Across All China, A Swordswoman Got Even With Anybody Who Hurt Her Family. Perhaps Women Were Once So Dangerous That They Had To Have Their Feet Bound.

And I Had To Get Out Of Hating Range.

We're All Under The Same Sky And Walk The Same Earth; We're Alive Together During The Same Moment.

Daughters-in-law Lived With Their Husbands' Parents, Not Their Own; A Synonym For Marriage In Chinese Is "taking A Daughter-in-law.