Through the portals

 


Originally published on The Ubyssey


My mom is packing a suitcase

before her 23-hour flight to Vietnam.

The smooth rolling of its wheels

intertwining with the staccato rhythm of duct tape

echo through the quiet house.

Her veinous hands organize the items

like an engineer assembling the ins and outs

of a teleporting machine

carrying capsules from this portal:

five packs of musky-scented Eagle oil

(for senior relatives constantly battling with arthritis)

two bulky boxes of chocolate

(for the innumerable nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and beyond)

and plastic-wrapped bottles of lotion and shampoos

(for their mothers, sisters and aunties).

The destination label lying neatly on the sleek surface

The stretches of words, diphthongs and diacritics —

enigmatic codes carrying the traveller

to a bustling street in Saigon,

with motorcycles trickling down the narrow lanes

alongside which warps

the smoky grilled meat from vendors, all within

the humid city, pulsating day and night.

I could only look at the machine, now wrapped tight with tape,

longing to hop in to reach

the other end of the portal.


Thumbnail photo: A quaint recreation of the southwestern Vietnamese countryside, with the traditional riparian elements: palmwood fish tools and a gas mantle. I took this photo at Bình Qưới, a tourist village in Thanh Đa District, Saigon (their grilled squid skewers hit hard, as always).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The other side of the hill

Image
 Viewing the Northern lights from the southernmost tip of Richmond The last time I clicked the "Published" button on this blog, I was sitting in a scorching hot room, with the sky still crispy blue outside. Now here I am, typing these words on a dark rainy night in December, where the closest I could see outside of my bedroom window was the white Christmas lights dangling in my neighbour's garage. The past four months have been an absolute whirlwind, sweeping away nothing but every bit of my breathe. In retrospect, thinking that I would have time to ramble here in the past four months was just an item on a list of naive thoughts I had at the start of second year - and there seems to be no sign that the list will end anytime soon... September started with a whirlwind - from Imagine Day (my school's grand orientation and clubs day) to new classes, I could never survive a weekday without sipping iced coffee on the 49 every morning. I spent one of the few last days before...
Read more

One iced milk coffee, please!

Image
Dawn in Hong Kong, photographed by two sleep-derived travellers  "Delete 879 items from all of your devices?" A black line of text appeared on the screen. The second I hit the button on the Pad image gallery to delete the enormous bulk of screenshots from my lectures and assignments from second year, it still hadn't dawned on me that I was two months into summer. My backpack sat near the staircase, with the haphazardly arranged folder still placed inside, waiting for me to pick up and sprint to the bus every weekday morning. Now that I wouldn't be taking summer courses this year, the passage of time was felt in every bit of my presence. Winter mornings rushing to catch the bus at the crack of dawn have been replaced with waking up to the warm sunshine creeping outside the window, the laughter of playful kids from my neighbourhood elementary school lighting up the day. A cup of lukewarm milk coffee on the rocking bus to get me through the first half of 9:30 AM lectures...
Read more

Black rimmed glasses

Image
  What a beautiful world we live in (until that one Chem final worth 60% of your total grade) "The sun is out!" The student sitting at the table next to me exclaimed as the first rays of sunlight flooded the upper floor of the Science Student Centre, where dozens of students were toiling for their endless rounds of midterms and assignments. I looked outside the large window facing the Nest, mesmerized by the ashen clouds parting to reveal the deep blue sky. My laptop monitor was glaring, so I quickly adjusted the light setting down to continue my frenzied pace on reviewing Anki flashcards. The sun could wait later, but suddenly one sight caught my eye: a BeaverTails food truck. It must have just arrived, with the staff setting up the area and preparing the cash box. Sure enough, within two minutes, I finished wrapping up my study and belongings and dashed out to the truck before the massive crowds of students trickled out of lecture halls around noon. The tantalizing buttery ...
Read more