Michelle Myers

Michelle Myers Poems

The Best Poem Of Michelle Myers

Listen

Listen
Stop trying to guess what I am
Stop trying to tell me what I'm not

I was born in Seoul
which makes me Korean
These slightly slanted eyes
ain't just for seeing.
I see right through you

You expert on me with your
fake Asian tattoo
You expert on me with your
Tae Bo and Kung Fu

So what you try dim sum
and dead something on the menu?
So what you a fan of Lucy Liu?
So what you read the Joy Luck Club too?
That makes you an expert on how I should look?

Screw you,
what do you know about being Asian?
I'm about to put you in your place, son.

What do you know about napalm and Saigon?
About Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
About Ghandi?

What do you know about demilitarized zones and no gun ring?
About me lie and the military?

What do you know about the killing fields
and sights that will no Chinese or dogs allowed?

What do you know about comfort women and geisha girls?
About conversation all over the Asian world?

What do you know about the Great Wall?
I could school you on each and all.
Man, I'm about to get raw!

You picked the wrong Asian women to mess with because
my tongue is forked and steel-tipped
and it will puncture and bleed you.
And if you don't know,
now you know.

Listen,
don't ask me what I'm saying in my native tongue
You want to know so badly go learn it yourself

Twenty years it took me to perfect the language
my mother and her mothers spoke
Twenty seconds it took you to ask
what my sister and I spoke about

If I said I wasn't talking to you
stop bothering me
all up in my business
How dare you step to me,
invade my privacy.
Waste my time to ask if I'm able to
relay you the contents of my conversation.
What nonsense is this?
Do I look like your private translator?

You probably thought dialogue centered around you
and you just want to make sure.
Is that because you're paranoid and insecure?
Or just jealous because my tongue's got more skills than yours?
So you want to learn how to say
"I love you" and
"Hello"?
Why you need to know?

You think of me as some Asian ho
ready to turn around at your calls of
"Ni hao, ma. I love you China doll."

Please, you don't impress me at all
because my words were meant to be mentioned in meticulous simplicits and man,
your mispronouncing manhandling mouth
messes it all up.

My meanings used for miscommunication,
misconstrued,
misinterpreted,
misspoken,
missing,

It makes me mad so you better have
listened.
And listen well.

Don't talk to me anymore.
Don't mess with me anymore.
Because I'm done talking to you.

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