POEMS===DEATH

English is The Universal Language

Pauline Hsia

Sniveling immigrants that snatch
American jobs, destined to
Scrub toilets with your tongue, to scrape
mold with your teeth.
BabySit those brats, service them with
your existence.

If breath escapes your mother, if

Your father’s eyes are vacant, have your

Children scrounging

For scraps since coldness is
In theory and reality equals a

Pleasant slap.

Gangs are but a phase, cancer is

Karma, and AIDS becomes Harry Potter

Flying on his broomstick.
Myths, lies, and manipulation are

Tools sharpened to perfection.

Hungry?

Strip and Kneel.
We have extra change.

Impoverished? Ha!

Preposterous!

The government has no ears,

No sight, no words. Your
Pitiful father can't say a damned thing.
The society creates you, we

Create the society.
We create,

We own,

You

And you

And you

And you.

To be an American,

Erect and proud, with the stars and stripes

Flapping eagerly.

You can't, can’t be
a red-blooded American. Insert the

Needle to withdraw black

And green plasma, humanity

Belongs to those born

Upon U.S. soil.

For no American worships
Allah! Buddha! Ishvara! Guan Yu!
Amaterasu! Confucius! The sun and the moon!
For no American has those chinky eyes
or that kind of a tan.
For no American eats pig intestines or
fish eyes or skewered guinea pigs
or raw dead duck eggs.
No fucking American.

Racism interlocks with

Sexism, threats of deportation

Lead to exploitation,

Degradation and demonization is

An excuse for utilization and

Civilization.

Dare not call it

Nationalism when it’s

Bullshit at its best.

The Surface is But a Stroke Away

Pauline Hsia

The surface is but a stroke away, light

Playing off the pool’s

Edges,

Though Eternity, sick in the head, grabs on

To drag me

Down to Tartarus.

When I arrive wishing to

Dunk my head in the River Lethe

A thousand cars drunk,

Blind with rage,

Come stampeding upon my soul

Like Mufasa and the

Wildbeasts.

My spirit soars to the skies,

Where the heavenly

Father awaits

And I lounge in the Gate’s lobby

Snacking on cheese and

Eggs

Suddenly feeling my pulse race,

My heart’s aorta bursts just

When Father says I can enter, however seeing my sin of

Gluttony, he

Banishes me to return to

Where the grass is artificially

Green.

Where the young man’s breath mingles

Pleasurably with his lover,

Provoking shudders and tingles,

Implanting what she shall discover.

There I lie, inside her womb,

Limbs pulling together from disarray,

From thence I can resume

Revisiting where I shall stay.