To a Daughter—
I want you to know how it feels like—
no, I don’t want you to know.
To singe and burn with manna
on the tongue.
When you open this, think of it
as a door to a confessional.
The page rises with the odor
of incense and sandalwood.
There are things I can never
protect you from.
When you confess to me,
I can only listen like a priest
and believe.
biography
CATHY LINH CHE is the author of the poetry collection, Split (Alice James Books, 2014), winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. She is a poet, teacher, and arts administrator living in Brooklyn, NY.