As Americans, As Immigrants
by Elani Spencer
China in our left eye, America in our right
always watching the life we left,
and the life we journeyed far for
through narrow windows
weather-beaten hands reaching
but never touching
On the way here,
we ingested enough seawater to fill an aquarium
Our bodies have always been on display
Let’s give them something to gawk at!
as we spew salt, squid, stomach acid,
assimilation shoved down our throats
Angel Island,
a wayward ship in the San Francisco Bay
waiting to be saved,
to be pulled ashore,
and cradled in the waiting arms of Liberty
When they come back for her
and they always do…
we’ll follow her frothy trail
through frigid water
to a golden shore
….
Eyes locking with eyes just like mine
across a bustling, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant,
the sounds of San Francisco
s
p
i
l
l
ing
through window cracks,
the ties of our lineage u n s p o o l i n g
from our chests
and braiding
our souls together
I know you
The beads of our ancestors slipping
from the frayed ends
and p
o
u
r
ing like a holy river
across the scuffed floor
Who would have thought?
We’d find ourselves in a gentrified place…
Then hand in hand,
We carry too-much-soy sauce sticky slips
of fortunes on foot soles
into rushing traffic,
stealing swallowed bits of culture
like sweet, communal-thin cookies
As Americans, ours for the taking
As immigrants, ours to reclaim
Muse Mosaics 