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112 pages, Paperback
First published July 4, 2017
The lines are long and my mom insists
that the final amount is wrong.
The cashier looks at the receipt and insists that it's right.
My mom purses her lips, looks worried,
says, it's not right.
The line of white people behind us groans.
My mom won't look back at them.
We both know what they're thinking
Small woman with no knowledge of the way
things are in America.
Though year after year
she makes flowers bloom in the hood,
petals in the face of this land
that doesn't want her here.
Finally a manager comes, checks, and tells the cashier
she rang up twenty-two plants instead of just twom,
overcharging us by forty dollars.
My mother holds my hand
leads me away
without looking back
at the line of white people
who overhear
and gasp,
their sympathy won.
If only I was old enough
to tell them to keep it;
it's not my mom's English
that is broken.
--Frank's Nursery and Crafts
and i wonder
if i ever will find a language
to speak of the things
that haunt me most.
No Question—To the white girl who saw a bunch of us little Southeast Asian kids watching her brother play a video game in the Asian grocery and said, "These gooks are surrounding us."Did we douse you in chemicals
that twisted your future generations
to flesh pretzels,
strip-mine your resources,
then fusion-fuck your family dinner
Did we light garlands of fire onto your sacred mountains,
push your people to tiny fingers of dry land,
explore what was already found,
then name your beautiful landmarks
after ourselves
Did we push your people into jobs
where toxic fumes turned your lungs into scorched wings,
your nails breaking on our skin
to paint ours pretty
Did we spin your history to smoke,
hook you on snorting the ashes
Did we convince the entire world your men
have cocks as small as minnows
scar barbed-wire borders using plastic surgery
break your legs to
make you
taller
Did we gentrify your love life
Did we convince your people
that we taught them the word love
and what it means to be free
Did we redefine torture
for our own benefit
Did we measure ourselves in fathoms
then force you to swim in us
until you drowned?
These gooks are surrounding us.
If only
that were true.