First Day

[Yejun]

The one palm tree hugging the snow
Was the first thrown at us
When electronic doors closed the terminal.
In the second, my eyes were on fire
And lasered a figure in volcanic rock--
Protruding lips, bulbous nose, bulging eyes.
The patriarch still watched over his family.
From the puddles of my second vision
Rose three widowers in wetsuits.
They turned to the ocean and dove in
to search for new husbands.
The last: a narrow woman
Looking out a window, eyes filled
With the sun's power on snow,
Waited to be seen in reflection.
I had stepped on the island, the first time,
And the visions told me it was my fate
But not what that fate would be:
To show a woman her reflection
Or become another stony patriarch?