" I am sorry, dear heart, that I have more sorrows than joy.
I am sorry I made you scale mountains, heedless of your soft skin.
I am sorry I made you jump into rushing water, heedless of your inability to swim.
I am sorry, dear heart, that you must bear the scars.
Dear heart, that you remember . . .
The day my older brother told me to run.
In my flight away from home, I heard the shotguns blast.
In my dreams, people found my brother, and they took him to the hospital in Sam Neua. In my dreams, the wild dogs entered our house, and feasted on my brother's fallen body.
I am sorry, dear heart, that I wish to begin again,
My tender, my wounded heart,
Begin again before the mountains and the water, before the sorrows, when I knew joy at my brother's side. "

― Kao Kalia Yang , The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father