Three poems by Ken Chau

1.
The Invitation

for Michelle

Make happy those who are near,
and those who are far will come.

Chinese proverb

You arrived
in 1994

our first banana
yellow on the outside white on the inside

a Melbourne girl
an unwritten daughter of the 29th generation

upon the yellow
earth of Frankston beach

who runs through the blue
of sea and sky and waves

at the seagulls
in a language apart

from English
or Chinese

beckoning
all the Chinese

daughters of the sea
to come

together
bound

to be free
for a secondborn
one hundred years.