a generational recipe

How to Make Tình Yêu <love>

my mother [from her mother's] recipe

1. Take out your linh hồn <soul>, lay it on the table

2. peel off your da <skin> to assimilate in the U.S. then

3. start seasoning your children by marinating them full of discipline

4. a hard pinch of the cheek when they're misbehaving

5. rinse the rice in respect multiple times and don't forget to fluff <xới> the rice, you have more than just fish sauce to portion out now

6. finely chop up any complaints they might have; they're not justified

7. remember to stir the pot constantly, you don't want them to fail

8. render any backbone they have into mush because they can't know what you've been through

9. stir it all together and tell your children, "________________."

How to Make [unheard-of]

my recipe

1. dampen cheek dried by a mother's sleeve

2. a spoonful of storytelling and storyreading

3. so that we may have a drop of what I call tình thương; love with a dash of anguish when I know you are the first to hear, "má thương con" every single day.