I hear my parents laud in their native tongue

The flourishing Chinatown of Seattle

Soon the city will expand across the bridge and raise up the income level

How joyous it is to see growth

And simultaneously get rid of the vagrant camps, no less!

Parking lots - what an efficient way to meet growing needs and tidy up a

messy part of town

A perfect and elegant solution to a

Peaty problem

There is something to be lauded here no doubt

Brush the homeless off the streets and under the rug

Out of sight out of mind, ever the Chinese mindset

Some things don’t deserve mention and if we don’t mention them they

don’t exist

Exiled to the bottoms of bridges and the undersides of highways

Seeking a roof overhead as floorboards disappear from underfoot

The irony is

My parents see no connection between normal life and these vagabonds

Us and them

They have forgotten how close they were to putting me in the same place

​

Years later I’ve yet to set down the rainbow knapsack

And every time I pass a huddled mass on the street

Their feet sticking out from under a tattered rug of a blanket

I resist the urge to yank away the cloth and beckon

Tell me your story

Set down your knapsack and let me hold it with you

You are here and you are real

The darkness is nowhere to live

Come out with me

​

But it’s not my place to take what dignity they have left

Instead I walk faster and brush away the tears on my cheek

Out of sight out of mind

Muting my mother’s phone call as I disappear into the night

​

​

​