by KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI
my father has many creation stories
about why he chose to come to America
growing up gazing out over the sea’s edge,
he longed to know what was on the other side
what immigrants have never lacked is motivation
enough to propel us halfway ’round the earth away from
family, language, culture, everything we’ve grown
in pursuit of the unknown
longing to know what is on the other side
who has documented how many meals cooked,
garments sewn, bricks laid, oranges picked,
babies cooed to sleep, miles driven, floors scrubbed,
who has documented how many hours produced,
contributions earned through the resilience of immigrant labor?
political analysts develop numerical projections
legalizing immigrants will be a drain on the economy
strange, since so many of their own ancestors
must have passed through the gates of Ellis Island
they themselves deemed
uncivilized, unintelligent, poor
they themselves subject to hygienic screenings,
literacy tests, religious persecution
they themselves something
before they became American
all over the map of the united states:
indigenous names still hold strong –
Seattle, Chicago, Wichita, Tucson, Omaha, Milwaukee
trace reminders of thousands of years of tribal history
while school kids today are still instructed
to celebrate the myth of a first Thanksgiving
those early settlers could have never foreseen
our classrooms, myriad of tiny hands
cutting and pasting paper turkeys
proud and gregarious
with names like Hong Mei, Mahamadou,
Prerana, Julio, Joaquin
our kids sketching images of cornucopia,
never-ending bounty
sea to shining sea
our country’s forefathers could have never foreseen us
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness. — That
to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
pen to page, glow of the computer screen
the cursor blinks
legislators pour over fine print during late nights,
cold pizza and KFC, greasy napkins
next to eight hundred forty-four pages of documents
to foresee the future of eleven million Americans today
redefining borders
reuniting families
refining paths to citizenship
we know the America that our lives our telling
an America that does not simply
distill human beings into dollars
an America that chooses to turn
historical pain to purpose to power
our presence comes from great need
our survival from great strength
our resourcefulness
American in its essence
this is our time
the human lives at stake
ink dries this very moment
hands turn the page
a chance to rewrite America
to foresee
what may be
on that other side
Kelly Tsai’s blog is Yellow Gurl