Gathering
We all gather outside
underneath a white tent in the
courtyard of the apartment.
Upstairs, a grieving mother
sits fold-legged in prayer reciting the ancient
verses of the dead.
Her eldest, Tep,
passed in his sleep in
the small hours before
anyone even noticed.
She lost her husband
only three months prior,
and now her son is gone, too.
Both a grieving wife and mother,
she seeks solace beyond what
the natural world can offer.
I didn’t know him too well.
I know his sister, a very dear friend.
We all used to live on the other side
of town an entire childhood ago.
On this bright, crisp day, I
sit at this long banquet table
filled with Khmer yellow curry,
smells of galanga, the sweet citrus
of kaffir lime, golden turmeric,
stewed with potatoes and onions
and the whole chicken, feet and neck
with all the natural collagen
the way the aunties always make it.
I watch Katie maneuver a
slippery piece of the short, sturdy,
claws with her chopsticks
while she removes the skin,
cartilage, and tendons from the
bones in her mouth and
discard the tiny leftovers cleanly
like a true Cambodian.
“It’s the best part,” I say.
“That’s what I told my husband, Eric.
These white people putting powder collagen
in their smoothies.
I tell him, ‘Just eat the real stuff.’”
We laugh.
The Hennessy bottle gets passed around.
At the end of the table,
strangers without introductions chime in.
They get comfortable.
“Damn, you still sipping that shot?”
I am a slow drinker.
I look over to a group of grown man thugs
still feeling fresh
from ‘92 and I say,
“Don’t worry about how long I sip my drink.”
“Aight, aight, aight…”
they raise shot glasses.
I left the old neighborhood
nearly thirty years ago, but
everyone still jokes about
how my parents didn’t let me
play outside.
As I sit at this gathering,
honoring past lives,
I recognize I am no longer
that sheltered girl
whose parents were really strict
but someone who has
grown own, not afraid to stand up
to older bullies, someone who
longed to miss her community,
and someone who still enjoys all
the jungle Asian cuisines.
Current Issue 2026 