Rice and Hamburgers

I.

We married at the flowering
Of peach trees: for my job
We came to the United States.

My lady has learned English.
She visits neighbors
And walks to Bible study.

The accelerator is good,
For when neutrons go
Through the strong magnetic field,

The mathematics and results
Agree. I return home.
My lady cooks me hamburgers.

I ask her, “Why English? Why hamburgers?
Why Bible study?
Are Mandarin and rice not enough?”

“I learned to make these today.
Will you not eat them?”
I do not like hamburgers.

“Then I will cook you fried rice.
I am a Christian now:
I would serve and honor you.”

Since then, I do not know her.
She wishes me to come
With her to church. I will not.

She becomes more American
Each sunrise. I keep company
With the accelerator.


II.

I married my lord and we loved:
He was handsome and brilliant
And picked me peach blossoms.

When the government offered him
An American job in science,
I said, “Accept. That is high status!”

And since he was educated
And loved Western physics,
He decided to do the work.

The lady next door in America
Invited me for tea, and then
To a Bible study. I went.

They spoke of a God both Creator
And Repairer of broken souls.
I knew mine was broken.

Though my lord despises my study
The accelerator pleases his soul.
So I asked his friends’ wives what they eat.

To bless him I cooked out. He frowned.
I left on his plate a peach bloom,
Yet he spends much time at work.