every action setting off a chain of possibility and consequence:

a missed bus saves a traveler late to the gas-station job

moments earlier sprayed with bullets by an armed robber.

Bumping into a crush at the mall leads to a date,

to marriage and kids, a house in the suburbs.

In a few minutes, this boy

will run in the snow under streetlamps that briefly illuminate

the skin of his origin,

with the screwdriver the police will swear looked like a pistol.

There will be popping noises that sound like the opposite of a celebration,

the lead heads of the bullets flattening, depending

on where they enter his body.

Now, he realizes his blindness is snow on a windshield.

The lightest breeze turns the powder to diamonds

under the streetlight.

Winter is as beautiful as every flake of snow,

coaxed to single crystals

until they pile back into an unknowable mountain.

No Question

—To the white girl who saw a bunch of us little Southeast Asian kids watching her brother play a video game in the Asian grocery and said, “These gooks are surrounding us.”

Did we douse you in chemicals

that twisted your future generations

to flesh pretzels,

strip-mine your resources,

then fusion-fuck your family dinner

Did we light garlands of fire onto your sacred mountains,

push your people to tiny fingers of dry land,

explore what was already found,

then name your beautiful landmarks

after ourselves

Did we push your people into jobs

where toxic fumes turned your lungs into scorched wings,

your nails breaking on our skin

to paint ours pretty

Did we spin your history to smoke,

hook you on snorting the ashes

Did we convince the entire world your men

have cocks as small as minnows

scar barbed-wire borders using plastic surgery

break your legs to

make you

taller

Did we gentrify your love life

Did we convince your people

that we taught them the word love

and what it means to be free

Did we redefine torture

for our own benefit

Did we measure ourselves in fathoms

then force you to swim in us

until you drowned?

These gooks are surrounding us.

If only

that were true.

Villain/elle: Shimomura Cross Over in the Flat of the Night

—A villanelle regarding Shimomura Crossing the Delaware by Roger Shimomura, after Dylan Thomas and Lupe Fiasco

Shimo’ cross over in the flat of the night

Home of the coolie, displaced Native, land of the slave

Paddle over tongues of water, Colonialist’s Delight.

Tie an Arab to a rocket, set the fuse alight

Enlist a Chinaman in the military, racists haze the brave

Shimo’ cross over in the flat of the night.

Steal Native land, dance the white man’s blight

Drop bombs on Jap, teach yellows to behave

Paddle over tongues of water, Colonialist’s Delight.

Shackle woman, shackle man, pack them in tight

You can never get enough, what a white man craves—

Shimo’ cross over in the flat of the night

Build a wall against a people, barbwire their flight