In Short – Issue 3 (Spring 2025)

May 31, 2025

“Window Gaze” by Tinamarie Cox

Border Crossings, Macau to Hong Kong, 1957

By Melissa Hung

How long did she wait in that old apartment by the window staring down the crusted dirt road, her hair matted with sweat, skin sticky, afraid to eat anything but rice among the strangers around her, adults who left her alone all day and did not return until after she had balled herself into the corner, fitfully sleeping with her mouth open, dreaming the same dream she dreamed when she was awake: her mother.

Melissa Hung (she/her) is a writer and journalist who grew up in Houston, Texas, the eldest child of immigrants. She is the founding editor in chief of Hyphen. Her essays and reported stories have appeared in Longreads, Catapult, wildness, Vogue, NPR, and the anthologies Body Language and Disability Intimacy. She is at work on a collection of creative nonfiction about her mother and inheritance. Find her at melissahung.xyz.