One Sentence Poems
The Outside Perspective:
Give us 30 minutes, and we’ll show you your world,
But only the parts you’re supposed to see,
And we’ll take creative license as well, If only to ensure,
You will think the way you’re meant to,
And accept the stories we tell you, like a child before bed,
So that you will ignore completely
The past laid out behind you, in order to maintain the status quo,
of having you believe
your lifestyle is in peril, and we have a clear enemy,
clearly distinguishable
in the forties as a man, woman or child of Japanese descent,
and today as an Arab,
because a war a world away means they are enemies.
A Changing Society:
Inform:
such person or classes of persons
as the situation may require –
deemed a threat the United States of America;
all enemy aliens,
all persons of Japanese ancestry,
aligned with the emperor,
(taken for their protection)
Breaking:
the loyal among them say we’re right,
as we’ve provided buses, facilities –
being that even their people are ashamed of those free,
look at their smiles
see how close that naval base is
to your children,
different than theirs by sight, but
Now:
due process is not for terrorists,
have to trade up liberty for security,
and must look to peaceful Israel and find the bomber,
not the bomb,
by reporting suspicious activity,
any activity at all:
perpetrated by a color, you see
Breaking:
they hate our freedom and liberty
and train their children to hate us too,
what does it mean to be American now, but
let’s ask the expert:
terrorism is only against the US,
all inside can be spies
How important is their voice?
Frightened and Free
Frightened and Free
I am like the Bedouin who travels on hostile sands,
Stranger to all, mistrusted, to be driven from the land.
I exalt peace with a hushed prayer and elicit fear,
Reason has died and I am left to weep before its bier.
My self is only what a frightened fool desires to see,
stripped of dignity, handcuffs in lieu of humanity.
Here in the land of the frightened and the free.
We dressed in suits and irony and spoke fine English, we thought.
The six of us awaiting takeoff performed our noon Salāt.
Love is blind, but Fear is not and someone raised the alarm:
Suspicious Arabs aboard the flight, intent on causing harm.
We Imams, we Leaders, we men of God and peace,
Played by all the rules but still lost out,
Here in the land of the frightened and the free.
They took us away in handcuffs, at a whisper’s beck and call,
Worse yet I saw the faces, fear or hate covered most all.
In the face of such recklessness what good can reason do?
In all of History it’s been the same, the many rule the few.
The word “Imam” means leader, and so I’ve tried to be,
Yet in this world I’m suspect, my race is all they see.
And we’re still looking for equality,
in the land of the frightened and the free.
What More
I used to be able to walk around without the stares
Then after the bombs fell out of the sky Then after the planes fell out of the sky
And more than 2000 people died And more than 3000 people died
Trapped by a fire that I did not create
I lower my head in shame I raise my head without shame
Because I did not do this.
I attract stares at the grocery store I attract stares at the airport
They tell me to stand in a different line and
Ask me questions about the government. Ask me questions about another government.
They say it is because of my eyes They say it is because of my clothes
That I am treated like this
I speak English, I am almost a citizen I speak English, I am a U.S. citizen
What more can I do?
I cannot change the color of my skin.
Disillusion
|
Attention to all Japanese: All items must be safely packaged, The officers don’t want But if you disobey orders |
We are American citizens, not foreigners, Thrust from our homes, The officers want What if we can’t hear the orders, |
Japanese Americans: Pearl Harbor
The Wire
racial lines, and barbed wire lens.
We were not treated with respect.
except to children in their class.
There was no persons limit on the train.
Beds, like the barriers, made of wire.
but were too young to understand.
and need to salvage what memories we have left.
but does its meaning resonate?
digging for answers to excavate the truth.
But for our people to truly heal, my daughter needs to see the wire too.
Fifty Years
Over fifty years later, after abandonment from the homes you built,
After evacuations, after internments,
After four years of suburbia, an isolation
With no recourse or route that could take you home
We send this letter as an apology
Fifty years later, if only
It could replace the hours lost, the time spent
Inside that asylum whose confines still
Have not been loosened, whose chains have not
Been broken; Fifty years and an apology of
Twenty thousand dollars to forget;
Fifty years later, there is an apology
That will not erase a fifty year ache
A fifty year burden had created.
二度とこの現象が発生します Never Again Will This Happen
I was a child of the double bouquet
Yaeko when I was loyal,
Yaeko when I was not.
I am still a child of the double bouquet
Living with these fingers
That touch the surface
The sanctuary of the keys.
They are my only way out of this heat
I met them there
Four years, one man, one piano
I was married to both
Their smooth sound freed me from this
This prison of little houses
Little white houses that never changed
Little white houses unlike my own
My own that was left behind
I play Ella’s song
She says somewhere there’s Heaven
And I teach it to all the others
So they can find Heaven too
This music I teach
Upholds the sanity in me
And it still will
Long after I leave this place
The No No Boys
Are you willing to serve (As It can not be helped that
in the armed forces they see you as the enemy
of the United States and you must say yes when questioned
on combat duty, on giving up your humanity,)
wherever ordered? You cannot control your future.
Will you swear unqualified allegiance To a place where you have no home,
to the United States and to its people, though they think you wont
faithfully defend the United States protect their children
from any or all attack as you are the threat who will
by foreign or domestic forces, do more damage
and forswear any form of allegiance to the United States and confirm your loyalty
or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to your race,
or any other foreign government, you cannot say no with
power, words,
or organization? you are not a person.
Japanese-American Internment Memories 