A Page: Reflection
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you -
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it’s that simple.
I am nineteen and Chinese.
I came to this land mid ‘90s,
to join the ventures of my ambitious father.
I am now a college student, in a town
northeast of the capital, close to where
I call home, here, in Maryland.
I walk past lot 1, then CSPAC, then
I cross Stadium drive in the drizzling rain,
to Denton Hall, to my room,
where I sit down, and write this page.
What is truth, for you and me?
Is it the same, or different?
I am what you see and hear,
an alien here in America.
Some think I like to
bury myself in books, shut away
all day, studying, working.
Well, I like to live a life too.
I like sports, parties and friends.
I like a movie for a Christmas present,
of thrills, laughter or tears.
I like the same things as other
Americans, though foreign I may be.
Is my page foreign that I write?
Being me, it will be alien,
but it will be a part too
of America, my new home.
They call it the “melting pot”
of cultures, yet segregation remains.
That is America, a land of
contradictions and hypocrisy.
Sometimes I don’t want to be a part
of this America, yet I do,
and am, that’s true!
This is my page in reflection.
----------------------------------------------
Free verse, 2nd draft written for an assignment as response to Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B"
As always, criticsm is welcome, but you can be critical without being mean.
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you -
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it’s that simple.
I am nineteen and Chinese.
I came to this land mid ‘90s,
to join the ventures of my ambitious father.
I am now a college student, in a town
northeast of the capital, close to where
I call home, here, in Maryland.
I walk past lot 1, then CSPAC, then
I cross Stadium drive in the drizzling rain,
to Denton Hall, to my room,
where I sit down, and write this page.
What is truth, for you and me?
Is it the same, or different?
I am what you see and hear,
an alien here in America.
Some think I like to
bury myself in books, shut away
all day, studying, working.
Well, I like to live a life too.
I like sports, parties and friends.
I like a movie for a Christmas present,
of thrills, laughter or tears.
I like the same things as other
Americans, though foreign I may be.
Is my page foreign that I write?
Being me, it will be alien,
but it will be a part too
of America, my new home.
They call it the “melting pot”
of cultures, yet segregation remains.
That is America, a land of
contradictions and hypocrisy.
Sometimes I don’t want to be a part
of this America, yet I do,
and am, that’s true!
This is my page in reflection.
----------------------------------------------
Free verse, 2nd draft written for an assignment as response to Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B"
As always, criticsm is welcome, but you can be critical without being mean.