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displaced memories
by Giles Li
posted 6/2/04
sometimes i remember
mining for gold
finding scraps from leftover claims
that white men never had the patience to look for
taking what i could after days of searching
under a blistering sun
working toward dreamless sleep
being beaten and robbed
every time i found something where white men
came away empty-handed
sometimes i remember
building the railroads
laying track down faster than the irish laborers
winning bets for the overseer
like a fuckin racehorse
when other white people questioned the decision
to use chinamen for hard labor
left out of photographs and textbooks
blown up with dynamite for entertainment
but that’s just the american way
sometimes i remember
living out my last days
under the barrel of national security
in midwestern camps
lost my home, business and dignity
locked up with 120,000 others just like me
because i couldn’t call pearl harbor home
where we either fought the war
or fought each other
cuz fighting america wasn’t an option
sometimes i remember
killing people who looked like me
on the strength of a promise
that we wouldn’t be forgotten
only to find in old age
that a promise can’t last more than four years
but a war never ends
treated like a dog
when i wasn’t accused of eating them
only taking it because i believed in a lie
fighting a white man’s war
only now i wonder
what we were dying for
