Our union on one hand
And yet it has never stilled our loving
When she intervened it alarmed us
both mightily, but since
no influence

Not the first time a child
Has trodden between
me and one I loved
Every time I walk past
the smooth grey eucalyptus
I think of her too

She who commanded by a son
to fore-swear a laowai,
with a grandchild looming,
acceded - well no court of appeal
and the word of the first son
with confucian weight carried.

Two loves, one lost one remote.