Phoenix Talons | Teen Ink

Phoenix Talons

July 26, 2021
By joie BRONZE, San Marino, California
joie BRONZE, San Marino, California
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Three thousand years

Eight cuisines

Papier-mâché project

Supposedly unclean

 

The Dragon and the Tiger Fight

The Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

Xi Shi's Tongue is fried

But Stinky Tofu surpasses them all

 

Dark golden rolls glisten with honey

The egg tart’s flaky crunch

Too soon it’s left me wondering

What’s on the menu for lunch

 

I find myself at the seafood markets

Where grandmothers holler for the freshest

And the smiling butcher quips:

All of my fish are the freshest

 

Chinatown is a dragon of its own

My adventures and perils mirror the creature as it rears its head

But when I welcome my fellow Starbucks addicts to my favorite teahouse

They are baffled to see me here when the world makes me feel suppressed

 

All they want to do is scrutinize

Keep China at a distance

Fetishize its monolid eyes

Wear it as amber jewelry

Ornamentalized

 

Devouring orange chicken more often than apple pie

Gagging over “barbaric” bird’s nest and phoenix claws

Rejecting the dishes that they didn’t appropriate

Ordaining that coercively fattened foie gras is bourgeois

 

Chop suey translates to “leftovers”

General Tso? I’m sorry—who?

These simulacra haunt us

What can we all do?

 

Question our assumptions

Keep a malleable mind

Stay open to dialogue

Put our opinions on the line

 

Our differences don’t have to create the dichotomies that divide us

Those who agree with each other don’t have to form cliques

We can revamp our culture in favor of a harmonious overture

Starting with something as simple as phoenix feet


The author's comments:

Amid steep increases in anti-Asian hate that have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, I was inspired to write this poem from my experience of watching society switch its perception of Asian Americans from “American” back to historical tropes of the “Yellow Peril.” I hope this poem can serve as a reminder that racial discrimination will only impede us from bringing solutions to turmoil. It is high time to set aside our prejudices and stand in solidarity against racism.


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This article has 1 comment.


on Jul. 28 2021 at 9:04 pm
SparrowSun ELITE, X, Vermont
200 articles 23 photos 1053 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It Will Be Good." (complicated semi-spiritual emotional story.)

"Upon his bench the pieces lay
As if an artwork on display
Of gears and hands
And wire-thin bands
That glisten in dim candle play." -Janice T., Clockwork[love that poem, dont know why, im not steampunk]

i love asian culture. i keep up with their news more than americas(I'm white). i also know a little korean mythology and some Chinese and Japanese mthic creatures, and I'm fairly versed in their history.