Artist

By D. Wang* Del Norte High School 26'

"A word exiled from the prayer" by Leanne Fan, Westview High School 26'

Before America points its gun at me:

I tell myself I’m an artist and not the victim /

/ how many foreign syllables does it take to paint a 

target on my back and not a noose /

sons hanging onto skin like they did amidst the Pacific /

/ too wet and too cold to let seawater dissolve a 

dream /

I hold onto my paintbrush and slash and slash and slash /

/ if I rename myself fast enough America does not have to

rip it away from me instead /

Before America points its gun at me:

I tell Her to rip my identity in shards

/ between daffodils and daisies she asks me to tell her which

is the weed /

to prune and protect /

/ America’s identity is pristine /

and scratchless –

– to shake my name on the tip of a foreigner’s tongue and watch it

shred itself in pieces

/ to say a green card is the only identity I need /

Before America points its gun at me:

reforge my spirit /

/ kindled 2000 miles away in a dying hearth /

my soul the humble inventor and America /

/ the pitiful dagger /

to say “this has gone on long enough”

to say “this has been forgotten for too long”

to say “I wish this was only America’s memory”

to say before America pulls her trigger:

/ I am the artist and not the victim

*This is a pseudonym, published anonymously