To One Unsatisfied

When, with all the loved around thee,

Still thy heart says, "I am lonely,"

It is well; the truth hath found thee:

Rest is with the Father only.

-George MacDonald

Feminist or a Womanist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOmyebFVV8

-Staceyann Chin

An Asian Am Anthem

Way back

to the yes yes y'alls

when I tagged bathroom stalls and my brother had new wave posters wall

to wall

I dreamt of the times they dropped Agent Orange and called it Kool Aid

bound our feet and called it first aid

Woke up into a spirit rotation, a soul inflation: the Asian Persuasion

Asian my orientation, Asian American my nation

wanted to kick specifics about being Asian pacific

but they taxed my syntax/orientalized my oriental eyes

and blinded me with Full Metal Jacketed lies

While overseas/policies/let bygones become icons

on desktops/double click to open windows/into sweatshops

tried to get out but the doors were Jessica McLint-locked

Never the mellow yellow but rather yelled and bellowed

at those white fellows who knocked me down

but I got back the fuck up again

coaxed by folk hymns, dead ringer for the revolution

leaving behind the brainwashed contusions,

red white and blue confusions

in a nation of computer generated illusions

They offered fame contracts/complete with blue contacts

assimilationist hot dish/slit skin and split my ancestor's bones for a wish

buried our history under haunted trees

taught self hate by their taunts of Chinese Japanese dirty knees

They want to halt our progress

but we left 'em behind cuz we got more sides than a stop sign

unwind tongues/rewind time/to study our story and sing this song

with sloppy mathematics calculate the ragged ratio

of this yellow braggadocio and blow the speakers to their stereo/types

Hai Ba Trung delegated to a ching chong pantheon

but we castrate and bat around their white balls cuz we the ping pong

champions

so fuck their Buddha boxes and Bindi kits:

fake ass renditions of our ancient cultural traditions

we reclaim, remind, retwist our minds

for our persistence of resistance

this thing called us/flush/bullshit to flourish/nourish

like rice ciphers/decipher/cropped tongues from here to trife times

with truth rhymes/our wind chime choruses/forming audible life lines/

we recite/overturn/with vocal overtures

Asian American anthem

beyond Suzie Wong and Hop Sing bows

I'm singing for ya'll/so can ya hear me now

this is for my people who got turned down

but refused to yield

for Hawaii sun sweat in sugar cane fields

for sisters pissed at Ling on Ally McBeal

for my brothers who stay strong without the steel

for those not on their knees from slipping on their own

banana peels

brainwashed colorblind

pushed aside

for culture pride

They can't evade this Asian American invasion

Yellow Nation

made up of crews rollin in Isuzus

with the buddhist trinkets ya mama gave you

hanging from the rearview

they call us slant-eyed

but we're clear view

and they're see thru

Don't be fooled, ya'll.

When will they learn?

The only time they see the light

is when their houses burn

Yellow Nation

time to

get up

wake up

stand up

make up

take up

lash out

strike out

make out

break

out

-Thien-bao Thue Phi (Minneapolis)

from Bum Rush the Page, a Def Poetry Jam compilation

Did I Miss Anything?

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring the good news to all people
on earth.

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren’t here

-Tom Wayman

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

-Shel Silverstein