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Chinatown
by Giles Li
posted 5/30/04
(The incidents referred to occurred in Boston Chinatown - ed.)
1903
police bring havoc to a Chinatown funeral procession
for another dead chinaman
thru streets that were usually protected
by the superstitions of those who traveled oceans to call them home
pulling themselves onto shore
with the strength just of a belief
that sleeping on streets paved with gold
was enough to buy more life than ever before was afforded them.
1903
police bring havoc
armed with misdirected righteousness and shielded by the long
letter of the law, and the law-abiding
were criminal masterminds momentarily and
once the moment passed
either found themselves packing up
or packed away
chinamen were forced to leave
or chose to leave
but the message was clear:
they were supposed to leave
and still left to realize that
somewhere along the line
someone’s bad decision
brought them to this.
1903
hundreds of men forming arrows pointing in opposite directions
fleeing an undefined menace but
the sight of flailing nightsticks
and paddywagons that might tip
over from the force of too many bodies
and not enough air and
not enough space and
not enough time to run back home and grab
the paper that might let them know
you aren’t supposed to be
here.
detained in this
temporary holding cell that holds spirits
permanently after release.
the cemetery for the living
where the future doesn’t come in a cookie
but in a memory of travel that soon
becomes inescapable
again.
