Table of Contents
Say What 1
I.
Vocabulary 5
Cookies 7
Shell 8
Go to Where the Love Is 9
Lead 11
The Reveal 14
Kids 16
Want to Want 19
When My Daughter Asks Me to Check and Make Sure Racists Can't Come In and Kill Us 21
Our Minnesota 22
Peeking through the Back Door of the Commodore 25
Refugees from the Prom Center, the Eighties 27
The Why 28
To Combust 29
Knockoff 31
The Measure 34
Poem for Ahmed Al-Jumaili 36
List of Notable Asian American Poets 38
467 / 500 39
Frank's Nursery and Crafts 40
"Allies" Who Think They're the Chosen Ones 41
Are People of Color as Bad or Who's Bad or Bad Meaning Good 42
Bad Driver, or Asian American Activists Who Talk about Their Own People Like They Are "Other" 43
It Was Flame 45
Oriental Flavor 46
Token Exceptional Asian in Liberal Multiculturalism 47
At Dinner 48
April 30, 2014 50
Apple-Red Pathfinder 52
No Question 54
Villain/elle: Shimomura Cross Over in the Flat of the Night 56
Rolling through a Four-Way 57
Bau Cua Cá Cop 58
II.
Future Letter to Daughter Apologizing for When I Caved to Her Request and Brought Her to Barbie's Dreamhouse at Mall of America 61
Broken Things 62
Document 65
Lights 68
In the Dark 69
Careful What You Wish For 70
Tourist with Daughter 71
Contour 72
Full Contact 74
Geek Triptych 75
Balsa Wood Free Association 77
For All Heartbroken Pizza Delivery Boys 78
Theresa, I Think 80
Incomplete / Abridged 81
Therapist 4 86
Chess Pride, Waverly Style 88
Night of the Living 89
Mouse 93
For Brandon Lacy Campos 94
Well Then 95
In Harbor 96
III.
Ego-Tripping as Self-Defense Mechanism for Refugee Kids Who Got Their Names Clowned On 101
Not a Silverfish 102
Being Asian in America 104
Untitled / Fathers 105
Thousand Star Hotel 106
Refugerequiem 107
Acknowledgments 109