Poetry: October Submissions

This month, Asian Fortune is launching its poetry series – a space for local APA poets to share their art, stories, and moments. We encourage all APA poets in the D.C. metropolitan area to submit their work. More information on monthly themes, eligibility guidelines, and prompts can be found on our website: http://www.asianfortunenews.com/poetry-submissions/ Happy writing!

Linsanity

My dad is the one

who put a basketball in my hands.

My mom is the one

who let me play as long as my grades stayed

above the rim.

She made sure I knew

she didn’t immigrate to this country

just so I could play their games.

Born and raised in California,

I led my high school team to a state championship title,

averaged 15 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 steals,

and when I didn’t get a single scholarship

scouts blamed it on my height,

and weight,

but I knew

it was my eyes.

They never seen a Taiwanese product

that was Made in America.

But, I have been here.

I’m Bruce Lee with a jump shot.

Breaking records and stereotypes,

a hammer in the hands

of a Chinese railroad worker.

A kami kaze jet

running suicides.

I took over the NBA

Gangnam Style.

It’s Linsanity.

I’m a Super Lintendo.

It’s Lindescribable.

I’ve done the Linpossible.

I’m one of the first Asian names

that didn’t Kung-Fu its way into your mouth.

Dear ESPN,

now you officially have a chink in your armor

and there’s gonna be billions more

just like me

as long as you’re willing to give them

a shot.

—

George Yamazawa Jr is a 22 year-old Japanese-American poet/emcee born and raised in Durham, NC. After being expelled from high school and dropping out of community college, “G” has become a 2010 National Poetry Slam Finalist,  2013 Kundiman Fellow, and has toured across the country and Europe sharing his story.

A Single Flower

There is a curious discomfort

At sitting in comfortable chairs

In well-lit halls, with generic background noise

And listening to the tales of horrors past

Not in the form of history lessons

Which are history, and left behind in the past

Contrary to whatever Faulkner may have said

And Woody Allen may have meant

But in the study of the law

The law, which is a continuous stream

Like Eliot’s rose-garden

And has accumulated debris and wreckage

Of centuries of malice

Prejudice, contempt, and cowardice

The words of men long dead

Crouching in tomes like venomous cobras

Sinking their fangs on the unwary

Dispossess them, disenfranchise them

Forcibly remove them

Don’t let them reproduce further

Don’t let them enter our shores and poison our culture

When law is an ornament to power

It ceases to be law

And becomes an afterthought

Cleaning the mess? What about

your own prejudices, the new hatred

and intolerance

that you now bring to the table?

No Pierian Spring to automatically

cleanse your soul and purify your thoughts

With apology to the student in the future

The effort is made

If a single flower blooms

The world is a better place

—

Shamul is a native of Bangladesh, currently employed in the federal government, and resides in the DC Metro area.

A Good Cookie

Every Sunday morning,

my grandpa used the top

of a baby Rubbermaid container

as a cookie cutter, so that each

piece was stamped on the corner

with a R in a circle,

registered trademark,

an unintended decoration

I grew to love.

The ingredients were simple,

eggs, flour, a spoonful of sugar,

and a pinch of salt.

It wasn’t very tasty

but it provided sustenance,

went down alright

with a cup of milk

and grandpa always taught me

not to waste.

When I was little,

I used to press the dough

into the cap, pressed extra hard

over the R, so there was no mistaking

their identity. Grandpa used to tell me

how just a spoonful of sugar back then

could have saved a life,

or an entire family maybe,

during Mao’s Great Famine.

It takes two cups of sugar

and a stick of butter to

make a sugar cookie,

but if you ask me, all a good cookie needs

is the basics

and perhaps letter R

in a circle, stamped on

an unassuming corner.

—

Angeline is a Chinese-American first year medical student at the University of Maryland – Baltimore. She recently graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a double degree in Neurobiology and English and a minor in Asian American studies. She enjoys writing poetry and singing in her spare time.