appealing

The Maynard
Spring 2018

erica hiroko isomura
0:00
 
 

i decay, bro

i keep thinking of @EmilyYoon saying that she
keeps thinking of “idk” as “i decay”

                                                    —陳琛, @chenchenwrites on Twitter



i decay each time i swipe up & scroll
in the void      idk if hashtags revive justice

the revolution will not be televised, they say
but will it livestream on the internet?      idk

whenever someone calls the cops i decay
because idk who will be choked next, u kno?

i decay knowing corporal punishment is alive
& well, the death penalty still exists

܆

idk if daniel dae kim or wu thought of this when they offered a reward
of $25K à la crimestoppers for info concerning a young Black suspect

like bro, u realize it’s p much legal to commit murder
against Black and Brown bodies, right?

i, too, decay whenever an elder takes a blow
in oakland or new york or my hometown

across the azn diaspora we’re thinking
that coulda been my grandma, my auntie, my mom, i know

we just want to protecc our own, so
idk if i can blame daniel dae kim, wu, u or me

as much as i can blame a collective amnesia
we’re not all the same asian, obvi

yet we all decay at the same fingertips
of a supremacy that is teaching us

to stifle such minor feelings
like these and those and theirs &

bro, it’s not
just us

܆

& a poem isn’t a synonym
for justice, i know

neither is a hashtag tho
both compose protest

these days a poem is
all i can hold in

my Yellow palms
clenched into fists

tightlylikeso invoking
words in white spaces

persisting on a page
as i decay—