DING LING (1904 – 1986) Nellie writes, “Ding Ling was a prolific author of revolutionary China. Her early short stories focusing on young Chinese women greatly influenced the world of socialist and feminist literature. One of her notable works, “When I Was in Xia Village,” inspired several of my own poems. How fortunate to meet my literary heroine during the First American Women Writers Tour to China in 1983.” Tell These Hands In a modest…
Angels of earth and agate, silver splinters Battling death, gliding and swooping, skimming the seas when Chinese warriors Jiu Jin and Ding Ling, their wings, their wings Dive and wash, dine with Owen Dodson and Tillie Olsen, American, Effervescence of words dotting breastplates, dotting their bodies in Finery of hungry ghosts of concubines and blacksmiths who Galvanize streams and rivers, haw flakes red and glistening In their mouths, teeth for Justice against random, against planned…
For Remember Rosie Jimenez National Mobilization for Reproductive Justice Rally and Speak-out, San Francisco, California, October 3, 2021 Women who plant rice Women who sew pants Women who weave rugs Women who compose songs Women who launder, who wash and wash Women who clean rooms, who dig ditches Women who agitate for a living wage Women who give their bodies Women who invent Women who dance Women who work And all women work Women who…
We eat chicken feet and we are not dead Our bowls are rimmed with bats and fire flies Our feet pedal sewing machines making blue denim jeans We march in Chinatown protesting discrimination Corona virus has no yellow skin nor brown eyes We are delivery workers, doctors, dancers, actors Our ancestors memorized the number of doors and windows in the home village, whether our fathers had more than one wife Our foremothers sold their bodies…