• Breaking News

    The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.

    Wednesday, March 1, 2017

    IMMIGRANT

    by Alan Catlin




    Does it matter?
    Now,
    here, today

    That they were
    grunts in Vietnam,
    her father,
    uncles, cousins

    and that she
    the niece,
    daughter,
    married an
    Asian guy

    Not a Vietnamese,
    not a Japanese,
    or a Chinese
    but a neighbor
    to Nam guy

    That he spent years in
    refugee camps
    before he made
    it here

    All of those awful years
    dreaming of a better
    life, of America

    That he finally made it.
    Worked a decade, more,
    for his phd,
    fought
    prejudice,
    discrimination,
    ridicule

    Does it matter
    That he has
    a good job,
    no a great job,
    is a provider
    is the father
    of their grandchild,
    their only grandchild

    a half-Asian,
    half-American
    beauty?

    Oh, yes it matters

    A lot.


    Alan Catlin is poetry editor of online journal misfitmagazine.net. His latest book of poetry is American Odyssey from Future Cycle Press.

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