Poem
Mary Jean Chan
Happiness
Happiness
Happiness
All the ingredients necessary for happiness:I grew up well-fed, years away from
war, its aftermath.
When someone in the family knows
sacrifice as the only viable currency,
such knowledge seeps.
History must suffice.
My mother knew hunger. A piece of bread, in the absence of
a miracle, cannot yield more loaves.
I will give myself the mango’s stone; the meat to someone else.
I will give myself the mango’s stone; the meat to someone else.
A miracle cannot yield more loaves.
My mother knew hunger. A piece of bread, in the absence of
history, must suffice.
Such knowledge seeps:
sacrifice as the only viable currency
when someone in the family knows
war, its aftermath.
I grew up well-fed, years away from
all the ingredients necessary for happiness.
© 2018, Mary Jean Chan
Mary Jean Chan
(Hong_kong, 1990)
Mary Jean Chan is a poet, editor and critic whose work is at once incisive and nuanced, intimate and international. She came second in the 2017 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2017 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. A selection of Chan’s poems were published in Carcanet’s New Poetries VII, and her ignitionpress pamphlet, A Hurry of English, was the 2018 Summer Poetry Bo...
Poems
Poems of Mary Jean Chan
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Happiness
All the ingredients necessary for happiness:I grew up well-fed, years away from
war, its aftermath.
When someone in the family knows
sacrifice as the only viable currency,
such knowledge seeps.
History must suffice.
My mother knew hunger. A piece of bread, in the absence of
a miracle, cannot yield more loaves.
I will give myself the mango’s stone; the meat to someone else.
I will give myself the mango’s stone; the meat to someone else.
A miracle cannot yield more loaves.
My mother knew hunger. A piece of bread, in the absence of
history, must suffice.
Such knowledge seeps:
sacrifice as the only viable currency
when someone in the family knows
war, its aftermath.
I grew up well-fed, years away from
all the ingredients necessary for happiness.
Happiness
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