I guess never had a problem with my words

My parents did though

Something as simple as a Big Mac at McDonald’s was hard enough

 

Escaping from war and using your words to tell your story must’ve been

infinitely harder

 

Attending English speaking 

classes to 

Practice 

word problems 

 

For example, a timed test -

You get as much time as it takes to fire one bullet - 

There is no wrong answer -

 

Imagine your baby is crying, but Grandma is slowing down the group. Do you give the baby drugs to stop the crying or do you leave Grandma behind, to increase the survival rate of the group?

 

Pencils down,

Hands up

Guns drawn,

Hands up

 

Like a twisted game of Heads-Up-Seven-Up

It’s heads down, hands up

Communist soldiers send a family of seven up to see their ancestors

Eyes closed as your life flashes by in the muzzle flash

 

Burning villages light up the dark jungle, 

mirroring the stars in a clear night sky

 

My parents had word problems all right

They would struggle to explain their role

In America’s war 

To people who wouldn’t 

Accept them because they were different 

 

The words in my problems today include 

Representation and stereotypes

Theirs included 

gook

chink

zipper and fish head 

 

I bet there 

were 

people here who wanted them dead

I bet there 

are 

people here who want us dead

 

But they fail to realize that

Without our grandfathers 

Their grandfathers 

Would be dead

 

Instead

They say

Ignore the history

Keep the Hmong a secret

If they want the story they’ll have to seek it

 

Keep it out of the history classes

Any kid who doesn’t know the role of the Hmong in Vietnam still passes 

 

Well we say 

 

We will not let our history be a mystery!

 

I will not forget what blood flows through me

 

It’s time to advocate, extend our own story cloth

 

We have to make history now to make sure our history isn’t lost! 

 

I guess I do have a word problem

I struggle to express my feelings of grief for my unrecognized forefathers 

 

I have a word problem

My language is dying

 

But my parents help me solve it

They had all sorts of variables stacked against them 

they subtracted giving up, added morals, attitude, culture, heart and character

 

Multiplied to keep our people alive

And divided their love amongst their big families

 

My knowledge, my opportunities, my character and person

Grew

Exponentially 

Because they solved

Their

Word Problems