Back to Previous

Race, to go

What’s yr race
            and she said
what’s yr hurry
how ’bout it cock
                                                        asian man
I’m just going for curry.
 
                        You ever been to ethni-city?
                        How ’bout multi-culti?
                       
                                        You ever lay out skin
                                        for the white gaze?
 
What are you, banana
or egg? Coconut
maybe?
                       
                            Something wrong Charlie
                            Chim-chong-say-wong-leung-chung?
                            You got a slant to yr marginal eyes?
 
You want a little rice with that garlic?
Is this too hot for you?
 
            Or slimy    or bitter    or smelly    or tangy    or raw    or sour
 
— a little too dirty
           
            on the edge    hiding underneath    crawling up yr leg    stuck
 
between the fingernails?
 
Is that a black hair in yr soup?
 
                         Well how you wanna handle this?
                         You wanna maintain a bit of différ-ence?
                         Keep or mother’s other?
                         Use the father for the fodder?
 
What side of John A. Macdonald’s tracks you on anyway?
 
                         How fast you think this train is going
                                                                                                                  to go?      

Fred Wah, “Race, to go” from Is A Door. Copyright © 2009 by Fred Wah. Reprinted by permission of Talonbooks.
Source: Is A Door (Talonbooks, 2009)