Thanks, Lee Her, your message helped me complete a poem that I couldnt find the words to finish: I come from canopies as deep and uncharted as the ocean floor. A land littered by landmines and shrapnel left behind by American ingenuity, where rumored rebels weave between trees like mermaids swimming just beyond the scope of our sonars. I come from a country that shines like stars — lights that have cooled and bodies that have gone before I’ve seen their shape. Mentioned only in whispers, a kingdom uprooted before roots took hold. I come from a people with no center, always expanding — Exiled by the Chinese, slaughtered by the Lao, and removed by the Thai into a free land with star spangled cages. I come from the scent of lavender, Lavender that smells like searing flesh after an electrical shock. Shocks sparked in unwelcomed ghettos, From blue eyed glares ending in “Do you speak English?” I come from a role taken because there is no word in Hmong for gay. No words except for the few I’ve been called - ntsej muag and qias neeg, or adopted words like faggot and garbage. I come from the spirit of a revolutionary, a hero beyond myth; an unmarked grave marked only by trees birthed from beliefs breathed into seedlings eight thousand miles away - souls that never crossed but a will transcending life. I come from a legacy of freedom and love lost to all but the lips touched in dreams by rainbow threads and woven cloth - to fight, to live, to love, to change the world.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 04:23:20 +0000
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