Heaven (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Cathy Song
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: Mothers, Parents and children, Asian Americans, Chinese Americans
“Heaven” appears toward the end of Frameless Windows, Squares of Light. By this time, the poet has already married and is the mother of a son and a daughter. The son, who has blond hair (which comes from his father), “thinks when we die we’ll go to China,” causing the mother to pause at the thought of “a Chinese heaven.” The poet further imagines how her son's hand “must span like a bridge/ to reach it.” She continues to wonder how such an idea could occur to her son, as she herself has never seen China. As the question of identity and ethnicity is pressed,...
[The entire page is 637 words long]
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