Personal Favorite: Early in the Morning; Li Young Lee.

 
While the long grain is softening

in the water, gurgling

over a low stove flame, before

the salted winter vegetable sliced

for breakfast, before the birds,

my mother glides an ivory comb

through her hair, heavy

and black as calligrapher's ink

she sits at the foot of the bed

my father watches, listens for

the music of comb

against hair.

My mother combs,

pulls her hair back

tight, rolls it

around two fingers, pins it

in a bun to the back of her head

for half a hundred years she has done this

my father likes to see it like this

He says it is kept.

But i know

it is because of the way

my mother's hair falls

when he pulls the pins out

Easily, like curtains

when they untie them in the evening.

How this made me feel: Made me feel like I know how my parents feel.

Favorite line: My mother glides an ivory comb through her hair, heavy and black as calligrapher's ink.

Why I choose it: I choose it cause it made me think of my mom and dad, how they act when they are with each other, they love each other with all their hearts and when my mom does something like this my dad notices and is like Damn, she is beautiful, he always notices what she does, notices how good of a wife she is, how much time she puts into the family, how much time she puts into doing what she does, how much she loves everyone in this family.