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