Where Are You From?

Kuo Zhang

At the drive-thru window of the Canada-US border,
the customs officer asked,
Where are you from?

He answered,
I’m from China.

How long did you stay there?

Well…uhhh… about 27 years in total.
I grew up there, earned my graduate degree,
then came to the US as an exchange scholar,
then went back and worked for two years,
then returned to the U.S. to get my PhD, and then—

I’m asking where you are from TODAY.

Ohhhhh, I see.
Sorry.
I’m from Montreal.
I was there for about two hours—
just for a hotpot.

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KUO ZHANG is an Assistant Professor of Education at Siena University. Her poems and translated poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Rattle, Plume Magazine, The National Poetry Review, The Tupelo Quarterly, Nine Mile Magazine, The Los Angeles Review, Gyroscope Review, The Roadrunner Review, Lily Poetry Review, Mom Egg Review, and North Dakota Quarterly, etc.