After the surgery my body longs for

gluey congee cooked with
yellow ginger
salted pork
thousand-year-old eggs
constantly stirred to make sure
it doesn’t stick to the bottom

hot water infused with
dried mushrooms
ginseng root
goji berries
apricot kernels
simmering a whole chicken
for hours to extract goodness

sound of marinated beef
hitting hot oil
in the wok
making a splash
dramatic and aromatic
prelude to the spicy salty dish
with green beans and ginger

dipping sauce of
chopped shallots
ginger root
sea salt
splashed with heated oil
sizzling with promise
explosion of flavours in the tongue

glorious heat
of food
taken from stove
to table
greedily ingested
into long-deprived gut
comfort long forgotten since childhood

Janet Bi Li Chan is a poet, artist and scholar born in Hong Kong. She studied and worked in Canada and now lives in Australia. She is currently Emeritus Professor at UNSW Sydney. Her artwork has been shown in a number of group and solo exhibitions. Her poetry has been published in a multi-media exhibition ‘Soft Power’, in Visual Verse, The Poet, Moon Orchard Audiobook, Where Else: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve, 2023) and Under the Radar (forthcoming). Her poetry collection was short-listed for publication by Liquid Amber Press for 2023.