POETRY

'TO ALL MY SPANISH NEIGHBORS'

By Eric R. Velarde

Yo, Chink!
Hey, Chink!
What the fuck is up, Chink?!
Everywhere I go it’s
Chink, chink, chino, chink
Chink, chink, chink, chino
And they don’t even know
That I’m Filipino
And not a China man
Not Jackie Chan
They don’t understand
That they’re
Ignorant
I’ll tell you why you like to call me
Chink, Jap, or Gook
Cuz it’s a lot harder to kill a
Mike, John, or Luke
You claim what does it matter
You all look alike
With your Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon Kung Fu Strike
But let me take a minute or two
to educate you
That just like you
Spain invaded my country
Don’t believe me, it’s true
For 300 years, they left religion
And a lot of influence
But then there was a war
In every city, town and province
So just like Mexico,
Puerto Rico, and Peru
The Spaniards came
And ran the country through
The difference is
We won our war, but it was too late
We even still have Spanish names
Up to this date
As for the black brother and the black woman
The African
American
Just cuz you think your dick’s better and bigger
Bro, you calling me a chink is like the whites calling you nigger.
So now
you still want to call me Chink?
Maybe next time, before you speak,
You’ll think.