Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2011/8/13/becky-nao/

becky nao

becky nao
kicked me so my shins turned purple
taunted me daily mimicking my voice
becky nao
believed there was only one slot
for an Asian girl in fourth grade class
becky nao
the white girls weren't rivals
only me, the one other Oriental girl,
becky nao
slit eyes and black hair,
good grades, neat handwriting
becky nao
if i fell dead, gone, wiped out,
she could be that survivor yellow girl
becky nao
who's going to tell us apart?
so there can be only one of us
becky nao
flicks her eyelashes at blond boys
flaunting a fetish, even at age 10
becky nao
fat face, fat calves
her fat belief as the solitary token
becky nao
hatred curled tight in a nasty gnarl
all for wishing to be that China doll
becky nao

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Yoshi’s in San Francisco is having a book-party-cum-poetry reading on Monday, August 15, 2011 at 8 p.m. to celebrate The New and Selected Yuri: From Peeling Till Now

For more information: http://www.discovernikkei.org/events/2011/08/15/3237/

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© 2011 Yuri Kageyama

Asian Americans literature poetry
About the Author

Yuri Kageyama is a poet and writer of bilingual and bicultural upbringing, born in Japan and growing up in Maryland, Tokyo and Alabama.

Her works have appeared in many literary anthologies and magazines, including “Y’Bird,” “Greenfield Review,” "San Francisco Stories," "On a Bed of Rice," "Breaking Silence: an Anthology of Asian American Poets," “POW WOW: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience _ Short Fiction from Then to Now,” "Other Side River," “Beyond Rice,” "Yellow Silk," "Stories We Hold Secret," “KONCH” and "MultiAmerica." Her film “Talking Taiko” (2010), directed by Yoshiaki Tago, documents her thoughts on writing, family and life.

She has read with Ishmael Reed, Shuntaro Tanikawa, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Geraldine Kudaka, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Winchester Nii Tete, Russel Baba, Seamus Heaney, Takenari Shibata, Shozu Ben, Keiji Kubo and many other artists. She is a graduate of Cornell University and holds an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
http://yurikageyama.com 

Updated August 2011

 

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