Homecoming

These three poems move through inherited fractures of language, belonging, and memory, tracing how history lodges itself in the body long after the vocabulary for it is lost. Together, they examine how identity is shaped as much by what was never said as by what remains.

Tracing the author’s journey from Hong Kong to Canada to Taiwan, this essay explores belonging not as ideology or performance, but as something that accumulates quietly through care, routine, and lived safety—reframing home as something practiced rather than declared.

Moving between Bangalore and Seattle, this essay traces migration, inheritance, and maternal courage through the ritual of packing—revealing how love, mobility, and understanding often arrive only after living their consequences.

From classroom humiliations over accent to family violence rooted in colorism and colonial beauty standards, this essay traces how language, complexion, and migration dreams shape identity for South Asian women across generations.