slap my chest

I am home out here

I can be me out here

all the trees root

for me as they spread

as far as they can in the

wind and snap back

to their original positions as if

clapping

something is going to happen

the fields are

blazing

The Wig

I look around the area

Steve had pointed to

I dig through

the tall grass and the bushes

I want so badly to

find the wig to

be the hero to

be someone

important to be heard to be seen

I look and look

I keep hearing

the birds and

the trees

the leaves touching each

other always touching each other

I want so badly to find the wig

my head is

filled with screams

the screams are

fighting with each other are

screaming at each other to

stop but I can’t find the wig anywhere

maybe it blew away

maybe the birds took it for a nest

maybe Steve moved it maybe I never

heard them talking about it

maybe there was never a wig

maybe I don’t live in Michigan

maybe I’m going crazy

a group of birds explodes out of

a tree from a scream it’s

Miss Beeoh

No Wig

I have no wig and I’m in

trouble too

my mom arrives

I don’t say anything

I have nothing to say

the birds in the trees took all

my words with them

in the car on the way home

my mom scolds me in Chinese

she’s crying

you embarrassed me

you need to focus on school

we came to America for you

all I can do is look at

the ketchup stain on the seat

and how it’s spread and dried into

the shape of a wingless bird

how it can never change never fly away

I look at the clouds in the sky making

new shapes

expanding and shrinking

a cloud can disappear

that means the clouds in the sky

are always new ones I’ve never

seen before

new ones beginning

again and again

let me

begin again

too

2:

the beginning of something

Annie

Annie lives in my

neighborhood she’s

my only friend

her parents are Chinese too

she’s a grade younger than me but

it doesn’t matter

because she’s a grade younger

I hardly see her at school

but it doesn’t matter

I don’t eat lunch with her

at school but it doesn’t matter

I can’t wait to tell her

about the missing wig

she’ll understand

she’ll know what to do

we understand

the sky in the same way

we understand the moon

in the same way

we ride our bikes in the forest

where the sun’s rays look like

ribs through the trees

the forest is our body

Annie always smells like swamps and

butterflies her hair always

looks like silly string

she carries a notebook around

draws pictures of turtles and

whales and of

robins and rabbits

she has big eyes that droop and