清明祭先人
落英纷纷迎清明
细雨朦朦待食寒
芳草萋萋不忍踏
怨曲声声无心吟
杜鹃啼血半山红
悲歌饮泪欲断魂
异国无处哀思寄
但闻枝头黄鹂鸣
Qing Ming
-In Memory of Jay
On a bright clear spring day
We went to visit your new grave.
Candles lit, fruit and cakes offered.
Yellow spider web chrysanthemum
Decorated your newly erected monument.
Ph.D, mathematician, father, husband
Friend, forever carved in stone.
New grass grew on the spot
Where you lay,
Soft and tender to the touch
Fuzzy hair
On an infant's head.
The old man in the cemetery told us
Not to leave anything unnatural,
For deer and rabbits
Were friendly neighbors
Sharing the offerings.
We led the children
Ketou to you.
Your elders stood solemnly watching,
Too old to bend.
Eyes misty, we forced a smile
For the camera
To catch the moment
For your parents to see.
Were you there in the air
Sharing this moment with us
Watching the children play?
Don't think you would mind
Children enriching the soil
In the nearby bush.
They said you could smell
The scented candle and the flavor
Of sacrifice. Yet they
Did not want us to say
Good-bye, for fear
You would follow us home
And become a wandering soul.
So on this bright clear day
We left you there
When the day was still young.
