poem in Chicago
Last week, I was in Chicago for three days attending GHC 25. The breakdown of my routine following a break-up the night before I left Cleveland created an ideal condition for my endless rumination. Oh, and that was also the night of my birthday, just to rub salt into the wound. Meanwhile, the conference itself was great fun, with lots of cute merchs and talking to people excited about their work and proud of their workplace. The pressure of finding a job definitely kills part of my enjoyment, but overall I was in a good mood in the afternoon being at the conference center. I found it interesting how much my mood shifts just during one day, so I wrote a poem(?) about it.
This morning there was a sobbing mess
Tears born of longing and regrets
Hit inside the comforting blanket
To savor self-inflicted misery
But outside waited the sunkissed fall
People, small laughs, little chats
By evening a smiling miss returned
River walk and a new friend met
City lights drew her warm silhouette
Nothing but the present yearned
Hey girlie,
Mistakes are lessons for better choices,
Longing loosens its grip once you let it go.
Twenty-two years behind,
Many more ahead
To live, to learn, to try again.
Fern Thao, Nov 2025
P.S. In Vietnamese, this sort of poem would be called "thơ con cóc" or "frog poem" since it's not in rigorous poetic forms at all. It was fun to make though, tee-hee.