Model Minorities
By Shin Yu Pai
in the shooter’s
face, she recognizes
her sibling’s coarse
unforgiving hair,
his yellow skin,
& vacant stare,
the year her brother
broke down, she was
still in high
school, seventeen —
w/ a taste for cutting
not class but hands
& arms any outlet
to escape
this “community”
denies illness,
a family reacts —
against crying out loud
let it be some other Asian
in the shooter’s
face, I recognize
my sibling’s coarse
unforgiving hair,
his yellow skin,
& vacant stare,
the year my brother
broke down, I was
still in high
school, seventeen —
w/ a taste for cutting
not class but hands
& arms any outlet
to escape
this “community”
denies illness,
a family reacts —
against crying out loud
let it be some other Asian
Copyright Credit: Shin Yu Pai, "Model Minorities" from Adamantine. Copyright © 2010 by Shin Yu Pai. Reprinted by permission of White Pine Press, www.whitepine.org.
Source: Adamantine (White Pine Press, 2010)