Yours Truly 2017 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA 2017 YT Online Book | Page 61

Parlin Shields
Sailing into the open arms of cold and hard and hate.
You came free.
You came with hope in your heart to succeed,
from a good family in a good country — from a good home —
to reach America, the brave and bold.
Naïve from the unjust distrust that awaited, a hate that darkens souls.
The idea of other, a foreign future,
is just projected false success, false comfort, false smiles.
Detained between my walls of history and her-story,
hope is a daydream you misplaced months ago
in the dusty corner by the window.
Read me up and over and sideways, you are not alone in these confines.
Decode my splintered boards, worn with
hundreds of lost minds. Work hard and cold and silent.
A forced smile is sometimes better than tears.
Scratch your story, carve your pain, dig in and
I will listen. You are stronger than I will ever be,
the weight of your words scratched out, cut crosswise to conceal —
make me weak.
When I crumble, thoug h when my scaffolds fold in
you don’t fall.
You are strong.
Sailing into my open arms.
I will listen. I will let your legacy last lifetimes.
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