The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
Labelling An Immigrant
by JENNY MITCHELL
I feel them heavier some days, the wide seams
of my clothes no longer swaying when I walk,
as if the thread takes on the weight of every curse
since I crawled from a boat, sopping wet, weighed
down by nights spent under stars as water crashed.
Curse words meant to block my path rear up to grab
me by the scruff, labelling An Immigrant. Men stop
to hack the words, aiming at my hem to see me stumble
when I walk. Ever since my country’s lost, I’m deep
in mourning clothes, family buried in the soil.
Saliva seeps through cloth even though I scrub —
hands raw — would throw the clothes away, but money
is too scarce. It is my fault for running from the bombs
that destroyed the fabric of my home, all I had
worn on my back, clothes failing to protect.
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