If You Move To Asia

A friend of mine works with inner city youth and teaches them to use writing as an outlet for their frustrations. The following is a poem I wrote to help me laugh at the difficulties I often face in a country where I literally don't fit in sometimes.

If You Move to Asia

If you move to Asia

A hunchback you may be
Bend on down
Try not to frown
Especially when you clean



Brooms come to the knee
Sinks come to the thigh
Snore and more
On the floor
Where all your linens dry



Don't start me on the markets
Cart handles are so low
My back deflates
I'm not eight
Why did I have to grow?

Shoe shops are a nightmare

They never have my size

Not in feet

Not in mete

er, can you empathize?

Why are fish down there?
Why do grandmas stare?
They have long hair
I'm so bare
I don't fit in anywhere!


Their legs are in a pretzel
While they eat their food
Mine are long
And don't belong
Is standing up so rude?


I walk into the store,
They tell me "No large size"
I got fat
Just like that
Woe are Western thighs!



The cars here are so small
The subway seats tight-knit
I'm so pleased
I'm not obese
because I wouldn't fit



Am I five-foot seven?
Am I weighed in pounds?
Fahrenheit
Isn't right
And miles can't be found



WHY DID NO ONE WARN ME?
That I would become

a hunchedback
circus freak,
big-footed
Kpop geek,
floundering
everywhere,
too big for
underwear
too long-limbed
for the clothes
making me
a too-exposed-
DAUGHTER OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
LIVING IN A TIME-WARP ZONE


WHEN WILL I FEEL AT HOME?
(Must I buy a Samsung phone?)

I've been here almost a year
And now I'm setting free
The pressured thought
To find a lot of
Asian things to suit me