first spoken word piece

"Viet pride", we hear them say
as we ride, on through the bay
South Bay, Los Angeles
knowing we can't handle this
laughing at them, so scandalous
My friends and I, hide behind our
perfect English accents, ashamed
of our mamas burning incense.
Intense smoke, we choke with our American
lungs, far flung from the home land,
can't land on this
here melting pot, melting pot into our
brownies, drowning
in this ocean too
shallow, wondering
how long we can go
before we run out of
oxygen,
till we can
wear our real faces
again
and not say my name is
[expletive deleted]
but [correctly spelled expletive deleted]
But it's more
than just a name when...
all it does is stand on pieces of
paper, could vanish like vapor,
Or betray everything we've fought for, tread for
bled for, are dead for
But it's a start,
got heart like a whale,
big as a bus
we're doing this for us.
Forests like trees, I say
my please and thank yous
but for who, to who, to whom
do we address with such respect, expect they'll
understand that yes, it is
personal,
worst of all, our
parents are barricaded,
not allowed to wade in our pools of language
these tools of language tearing down our
house

I wrote this for the Manifest event that Nikki started up for reach!. I heard a lot of good stuff that night and decided maybe I should try it because it seems really fun and expressive.