Tree I

                                           It being our intent to remain, 
                                       in the primrose garden, tender after 
                                     the last century, what horror when, 
                                      want eclipsing shame, you knelt. I could
                                      have declared That hereafter you must kneel 
                                    like a man with no State but me: but I too knelt, 
                                    a man trying to court or seduce his restored 
                                   reflection in the court of the moon's glow. 
                                Were we, to being United with ourselves, nearer? 
                             Was it enough these States shall endure, like the century? 
                            Or was it the time to admit Chinese whispers had 
                          somehow deceived us into citizenship with pure 
                      intimacy? But soon love and all laws will be right-
                        fully resolved. Nothing in conflict, the night is 
                              an orchard to recall with this scent of peace. 
                                                              act are 
                                                              hereby 
                                                              repealed


A/N: Bolded text is comprised of Section 14 of the Chinese Exclusion Act. 



Tree II

                                Always in a garden, familiar 
                             vegetal environment that this betrayal occurs. 
                              We thought, while it was still day, that we would pretend. 
                        I watched clouds give dappled kisses to the Chinese plums, 
                           though I much preferred deep shade, status of warm 
                                         freedom, over which a certain hush could fall. 
                                            But your other hand. Orienting my face away 
                                                   from all other people, to you. It was not that 
                                  orioles stopped their song, the great hubbub halted 
                                 by your lips' contribution to the delicacy of 
                              my cheek. Nor was the cause of the sudden stillness 
                                  from yet-unsprung soldiers, trembled motionlessness. 
                                  What was it in the world that held their breath? 
                            Not lilacs, which had the decency to keep perfuming, 
                                     nor roses in riot and freedom of display, which they 
                                               believe entitles them to lovelier preens. 
                                                              to such 
                                                             preference. 


A/N: The bolded text derives from President Franklin Roosevelt's message to Congress on October 11, 1943, in which he "strongly recommended the repeal of the Chinese exclusion laws," as China had then become "an important Ally of the United States." The repeal changed the quota on immigration of ethnic Chinese individuals from zero to 105 per year. 

Angelo Mao is a biomedical scientist. His first book of poems is Abattoir (Burnside Review Press, 2021). His poetry and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Georgia Review, Lana Turner, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. He is also a poetry editor for DIALOGIST.