Chinese Poem

As a boy I played
Chinese handball
Chinese checkers
Used Chinese finger trips
Practiced Chinese fire drills
And hit Chinese homeruns
I didn’t realize then that
I didn’t have a Chinaman’s chance
Of finding a home in this
Land of the free

4-2-9

Koreans like to describe history
By converting dates to numbers
Like 9-11
The Korean War is 6-2-5
Referring to events as digits
Is shorthand
That makes history
More palatable
It erases ownership and culpability
No one is responsible
No one is to blame

So it is with 4-2-9
When parts of Los Angeles
Burned to the ground
While sheriffs guarded
Wealthier saloons up in the hills
And moms and pops in moms-and-pops
Who all looked like my own mom and pop
Were made to pay
For all our sins

4-2-9 doesn’t mean much
To most people anymore
It’s just another day that comes and goes
But I remember
And I will tell my children
So they will remember too

Yongsoo Park is the author of the novels BOY GENIUS and LAS CUCARACHAS, the memoir RATED R BOY, and the essay collection THE ART OF EATING BITTER about his losing battle to give his children an analog childhood.