American Born Chinese in 2023

People who came to this land

looking for a chance at something,

seeking freedom, finding hate.

Everything inside screams

for a second life, asking

if we were made for more.

Hostility surrounds, closing in

like the sound of gunfire

at dance halls, spas, and laundromats.

Tweets like hungry bullets

rip open new wounds

across the streets of cyberspace.

No longer a white world, but

Our blood still runs blue

in veins and red on the sidewalks.

Blood and ashes cry out.

Scarlet stains our story,

making our dreams foreign.

Peace, Justice, Equality

lose their voices in the night,

silenced by the system.

Red and yellow, black, and white.

Things can only be made right.

When we rise up, stand firm, and fight.