Conversation at a Window

He says I’m a great mom,
kind, supportive, and so on,
but why do I have to be so
angry at his dad? I look out
the window at the pink camellias.
They are showing the first signs
of rot. The way the brown starts
at the petal edges and works
its way in. He’d almost rather
stay at school than come home
is what he needs me to know.
One day soon, I’ll get out there
and rake up the dead blooms.
That branch along the house
could use trimming back, too.
He says I broke the cycle
of my parents’ abuse, and he
will do me one better by
picking the right partner and
providing a healthy family
environment for his kids.
It is as I feared. A phalanx
of ants entering the house
from the tree. Behold as they
march across the windowsill,
showing no signs of mercy.

Claire Jean Kim is Professor of Political Science and Asian American Studies at University of California, Irvine, where she teaches classes on racial justice and animal/climate justice. She is the author of two award-winning books published by Yale University Press and Cambridge University Press, respectively, and her third book, Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World, came out in October 2023 with Cambridge University Press. She began writing poetry in 2021, and her poems have been published in Rising Phoenix Review, Terrain.org, Tiger Moth Review, Anthropocene (forthcoming) and The Ilanot Review (forthcoming).