We Were Fine, Thank You
2015
Kwame McDonald, an African pillar in the Saint Paul Rondo com- munity, was working on his autobiography when he transitioned into ancestorhood.
From Mears Park in Spring
2015
If you are walking on the sidewalk beside a tall building and, arriving at a cluster of orange cones, look up
Niam, Ua Koj Tsaug Thank You, Mom
2015
People ask me, “What is Hmong?” Hmong is not just an ethnicity, but a definition of who I am. Hmong is a tradition, a culture, and a belief. Above all, being a daughter in a Hmong family is both a gift and a curse.
Praises
2015
MAY LEE BEAMED when I praised her fennel. Mhonpaj’s Garden is the first organic Hmong Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the U.S.
Miss Decides She’s Had Enough
2015
I’ve been here for ages, my power formed this land right, all curves and banks, low countryside and limestone bluffs.
Playing Catch with My Dad
2015
Tossing the ball
back and forth
from hand to air to glove
The sound of it, leather
hitting leather, a satisfying thud.
An Uncommon Wedding: Eat Your Heart Out, Kate Middleton
2015
In a way, I feel sorry for Kate Middleton. She didn’t have to worry about a flooding Mississippi River dumping tons of mud on the wedding venue. Nor did she spend nights making hundreds of paper rosebuds for bouquets and centerpieces.
All That Silk and Satin Gear
2015
Springtime is the season of the Cinderella gown. My main task when helping my daughter prepare for her high school prom was to take her shopping for that one magical dress.
Upside Down
2015
Quiet and complacent; that described me in high school. A campus planning mishap catapulted me from my insular high school persona into one boisterous, self-assured college student.
Prom 1999
2015
When you asked me if I wanted to go to prom,
I was filled with excitement, until you requested
if my date could be your brother;
my 1st and last ex-boyfriend.
Osceola, Osceola
2015
We were moving to Saint Paul after a year in Ireland, all ten of us packed into a tiny Fiat station wagon for the drive from New York to a big house on an even bigger hill set on Osceola Avenue.
Van Gogh Appears at the Café Amore
2015
No chairs fly through the air tonight, no linseed oil drips from a homemade brush, no argument ensues over process, for Gauguin does not appear,