Moments of Half Life

The Background

I fully intended to do NaPo this year, but real life has been kicking my butt lately, and I completely forgot it was April until a few days ago. Yet even when I did remember that April = NaPo, I found myself lacking inspiration.

Well, inspiration has struck and here I am.

I don't really write or talk much about my experiences as a half-Japanese American (ハーフ), mainly because it's a rather painful topic for me personally. A lot of these pieces will be bitter in tone as a result, so if that isn't your cup of tea, feel free to move along. Otherwise, sit down, take a read, and feel free to ask questions about things that don't make sense because there will probably be a lot of things that won't unless you come from a similar background.

And due to my starting so late, you can expect more than one poem a day.

Notes:

Spoiler

|| is a programming operator that means "or". More specifically, it tests from left-to-right whether a condition is true or not. If the condition is true, the first result is passed, otherwise the second result is passed.

The tube by the sink was a lie.
The green was not mint at all.
My face is on fire. I cry
and throw the green tube at the wall.

Notes:

Spoiler

When I was two, somehow a tube of wasabi wound up next to the bathroom sink. I thought it was toothpaste. I THOUGHT WRONG.

And that is why the first word I ever learned to read in any language was "wasabi".

my father a golden mountain soaring proud above a jet-black sea
his eyes the sky and his skin the snow
that all who gazed up from below
could not fail to survey on that summer’s day more than twenty years ago
and the shock I still see in my memory of that day in Tokyo
of those who stared at the rare sight until they caught a glimpse of me

wandering the streets of Tokyo
I happened across a shrine
and drank from the sacred fountain
you're supposed to wash in—
years later I realize