For seven years I longed to see you,
my granddaughter. You slipped in
like a ghost, a slender teenage girl
with my black hair, nose and lips, so shy
that you whispered in slurred Cantonese.

You didn't want to wear my sweaters
of olive green and brown, colors of the earth
that I clung to through the Cultural Revolution.
You wanted pinks and yellows —
so young and foreign.

I want your lips to curve into a smile.
All week my fingers knit, twisting braids
of soft cashmere, warm and thick,
into a cardigan — pale blue for you, my love.

I can't find your dark eyes and long hair
breezing through the airport. It is noon
and you flew into the clouds
without my embrace.

Deborah C. Strozier won third Prize in the 2005 William Redding Memorial Poetry Competition and second prize in the 2008 Salon Chapbook Competition sponsored by Pudding House. In 2005- 2007 Ohio Poetry Day Contests, she won first prize,second prize, two third prizes, and three honorable mentions. She won the 1998 Janet Cicchetti Memorial Prize. Poems and flash fiction were published in The Bitter Oleander, Möbius, The Raintown Review, Hazmat Review, Ibbetson Street Press, Arabesques Review, and 21 other publications. Her chapbook, Lotus Leaves, has been accepted for publication by Pudding House. She is vice-president of the Ohio Poetry Association. She is a product development scientist in an international nutrition food company.