Poem by Nellie Wong

Mama, Come Back Mama, come back. Why did you leave now that I am learning you? The landlady next door how she apologizes for my rough brown skin to her tenant from Hong Kong as if I were her daughter, as if she were you. How do I say I miss you your scolding your presence your roast loin of pork more succulent, more tender than any hotel chef's? The fur coat you wanted making you look like a polar bear and the mink-trimmed coat I once surprised you on Christmas morning. Mama, how you said "importment" for important, your gold tooth flashing an insecurity you dared not bare, wanting recognition simply as eating noodles and riding in a motor car to the supermarket the movie theater adorned in your gold and jade as if all your jewelry confirmed your identity a Chinese woman in America. How you said "you better" always your last words glazed through your dark eyes following me fast as you could one November evening in New York City how I thought "Hello, Dolly!" showed you an America you never saw. How your fear of being alone kept me dutiful in body resentful in mind. How my fear of being single kept me from moving out. How I begged your forgiveness after that one big fight how I wasn't wrong but needed you to love me as warmly as you hugged stranger

You don’t realize how much you love someone until that person is gone from your life. You don’t realize how much you take someone for granted until the day they are gone. You don’t realize how much you miss someone until the day you realize they are never coming back. And this is all very true. We are so into our own lives and our own interest that we take people around us for granted. We boss people around for our own pleasing. We say things to people we don’t really mean. We get mad at people when things don’t go our way, but its not until they day that person has left our lives that we realize what a terrible friend or family member we are. But usually by then it’s too late. We want to take things back but we can’t. We want to apologize but we can’t. We want to see them one last time to tell them we love them, but again we can’t. A lot of times, I know I can say so for myself, we are blinded by our own interest that we don’t see how much of an impact others are in our lives. We don’t realize that by our selfish acts we push the most important people in out lives away. And we finally do realize it. It is too late. So, by thankful for those around you don’t go anything you’ll regret later. Tell those you love how much you love them and how thankful you are for them before it’s too late.

I found this poem really inspiring. And it just makes me think about how much my mother has done for me and yet I fail to thank her. I can’t even imagine how my left would be if my mother was gone. This poem actually reminded me of a poem I wrote for my great grandmother when she left us. Just acknowledging and realizing how much she impacted my life and just not being able to thank her for everything. It just reminds me that life is too short. Live life to the fullest and again to just remember to tell those you love you love them and how thankful you are for them to be apart of your life.