Role Change
/Jianqing Zheng
A researcher says our sense of identity comes
from the way we interact with other people.
I know I am an old son when I talk
to my parents who are ninety years old,
but when I speak to my son I barely switch
my role to a father because he’s no longer
a child who’d listen with eyes wide open
or holds your hand when crossing the street.
It’s also interesting to note that when I show
care to my wife words like honey, darling or
I love you never leap out of my mouth
because I didn’t grow up hanging them
on the lips in my mother tongue. But it’s
a lot easier to blurt out these sweet words
in English. When I utter love words to my wife
I feel she again becomes my girlfriend
rather than a woman who has married me
for thirty-five years plus eight dating years.
The interplay between the two languages
makes me wonder what is true in saying
I love you. Love is simply love that can’t be
secured with vows given at wedding
because promise isn’t a knot that can’t be
untied. Love must come from the heart
and from what you do for your sweetheart.
For example, peeling an apple and slicing it
into pieces indicates your love because
you know her weak teeth can no longer
bite into a crispy, crunchy red apple.
Author’s Commentary: A research on identity in communication was a prompt that helped me ponder on different roles a person has to play at home.
Jianqing Zheng is author of Enforced Rustication in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Texas Review Press, 2019). His poems have appeared in journals including Arkansas Review, Louisiana Literature, Tar River Poetry, and Mississippi Review. He teaches at Mississippi Valley State University where he edits Valley Voices: A Literary Review and Journal of Ethnic American Literature.
