60 Year Old Asian Fetish Unsatisfied...

Last Saturday was a Thanksgiving potluck at my friend's apartment...and it wasn't really a Thanksgiving potluck...granted it was just a small get together dinner sort of thing. And the weather on Saturday was raining pretty damn hard. But it's New England...weather sucks up here. Ain't any snow in Btown and Thanksgiving's next week...

So coming back, it was raining hard and we took a cab. Which was free cause...campus does some free transportation for students going to campus. Which is fine and all...but one of my friends lives off campus and I didn't know where. Dropped off and she asked if the cabbie could bring her back to the North End. Sketchy ass place over there...and cabbie said there would be an extra fee. Which made sense...off campus? So she's left behind cause no cash for the ride home...and I decide to walk her back. The North End is a sketchy place...especially in the down-pouring rain. At 9:00 pm...and boy were there sketchy people. I didn't even know where we were going half the time...we took so many different roads downtown and then over when we could've walked straight..but that was a sketchy road 'cording to her. So downtown...drunk college students being rowdy and annyoing mofos...fuck...some chick comes up to me:
"Hey! Hey! Ima SO sorry Chinese boy fo' be-in' loud...my farend's buthday is tooooday and-" STFU right there drunk girl. Like I give a fuck who's bday it is? Don't touch me...

So we keep walking...and walking...a little more...past the bright lights of downtown. To the auburn street lights of North Ave. Ain't nobody here but the gal and I. Cars only on the sidewalks. Rain pattering the umbrella. A red light blurred behind eerie fog...some hobo limping towards us with coins jingling in a tin cup like a homeless zombie...

Before we arrived at her apartment, she asked me if I wanted anything to eat or drink...very sweet of her. Even invited me to stay the night cause of the rain and 30-minute walk back. I politely declined...got work tomorrow and don't wanna rush getting there.

We get to her place and she goes: "So my two roommates are old people. They are like 60 years old. One man and one woman. Take your shoes off when you enter the house because the woman will be mad." Well...but pants are soaked...so I go in...old lady is jamming to her tunes...cat named Jeremiah?...check out the place. Then I'm about to leave when the old lady finally takes off her headphones. Talks to me about living there. The freezing library. Jeremiah again...a sewn blanket...then I tell them I gotta head back.

"You're walking in the rain?"
"Yeah. I got an umbrella."
"Do you want a ride?"
"Nah, it's ok. I don't want to bother you. I'll be okay...I grew up in Vermont...nothing's gonna kill me..."

Which is almost true...well it was for me. Although I did run into some weird people along the way...damn hobo zombie...

Well today rolls around and I meet my friend again who is all excited to see me. "Tommy! You remember that 60-year-old roommate I have? Debra? She talked about you when you left!"
"Yeah?"
"She say you are the cutest, hottest boy!" says says, punching my shoulder. I don't believe her. I actually thought she was distracting me from playing pool. "She say you are so kind and nice-"
"Why would she say hot? That's...maybe she has the wrong vocab? Hot..." well let me just say this right now. Out of story context...I am NOT hot.
"No! I bring people and guys and girls over for parties, and Debra never talk to me about the boys I bring over. You are the first boy she talked about!"

Cause I walked you back home in the rain? Uh...well then...if Debra's got a granddaughter my age...that's just fine...to which my friends say Debra has an Asian fetish. Which means I'm not going back...there...again...which I wouldn't even be able to find my way there even if I wanted to go back. HA! So...if she were like 20 years younger maybe I'd consider it...MILF anyone? GILFs...uh...you can go to urbandictionary for the definition...and I'm not into that. Experience? Yeah...NO. Huge cultural divide...and that goes beyond me being Chinese and her being...American? Cause I was born in America....there is a huge generation gap. If she has a granddaughter...which I don't doubt...I'm down for that. Word?

"Oh....you've brought that cute lil Chinese boy over again. Oh young whippersnapper, I have someone I'd like you to meet..."

Mother and Child

Inspired by the movie Hotel Rwanda

I’ve watched you sleeping for a while,

Memorizing the curve of your crooked smile.

Faded teardrops grace the corners of your cheeks,

Infinitely weary, the shadows pull across your eyes.

Between my shallow breaths I cradle your broken weight.

We ran together, you pushed me forward.

Forcing me to accept promises that I couldn’t comprehend:

“Do not look back if you no longer hear my voice.”

Five steps ahead and fingers intertwined, we ran alongside gunfire.

Genocide.

Lies.

Fear.

Oppression.

Neighbors and friends

Who once grilled steaks on Saturdays

And shared beers on Sundays

Now aim AK47s and 9 millimeters at the fathers and sons, mothers and daughters

Of diverse faiths, identities, cultures and religions.

Voices tremble, denying their Gods.

“Hold back your gun, I will convert!”

Words emptied from my mouth, exhaustion filled my throat

As I fled from the boys I once played baseball with.

My faith may have misled me; my identity forever forgotten.

My culture demolished; my religion betraying its people.

Yet my innocence had not yet been tarnished.

Although deafened by gunfire and blinded from death,

I continued leading the path to freedom.

Fear trembled against your eyes, tears traced the contours of your chin.

Gunfire so close to my ears silenced my breath. But it was not me who met the ground.

Your silence, a single shot, helped break my promise.

I turned around, and you’re no longer five steps behind me.

Now in my arms. Your blood follows us.

My strength can only go so far.

I’ll never forget your broken gaze.

Like your unconditional warmth before mine

I hold you against my heart.

My eyes dare not close,

Fearing you will no longer be with me should I wake from sleep.

Can you hear my four words?

Four simple syllables, I could not even utter while we ran.

Would it have been different if I said them before my broken promise?

A wound deepens into my heart.

Pain more severe than death.

I deny the truth I must silently accept.

My voice will reach you, but your response will never reassure my quivering voice.

“I love you, Mom.”

Apparently...my ass is cute...

So today I was working my office hours in SGA and doing my homework. Diligent little Chinese boy...slave at the computer...

Then my friends showed up...one after another...until five people were crammed into this 10 by 20 foot room gibberishly getting my attention. I couldn't understand what they were saying...someone went into a headlock, a bio needs to be written...I get poked. After much deliberation and and asking them to leave...they decide to write on the white board: "Tommy's ass is cute" "Tommy is pushy. Give him a hug!" "Check out Tommy's ass!" I really didn't care...no body ever comes to the office when I'm around...besides them of course...

"Hey man! We're here to move shit outta the office!" says some guy as he enters the office...that is not verbatim. I had no idea if this guy (Guy 1) was joking with me or what, but he had three other guys following him and I didn't want my ass getting handed over to me. "Tommy's ass is cute?" he reads off the white board. "Tommy is pushy. Give him a hug?"

"Uh..."

Guy 2 looks from the white board back to me and goes, "Hey! You're Tommy!"

No shit Sherlock...well...Guy 2 actually knows me...I don't even remember his name. Didn't bother to ask and my ass was more interesting to talk about. And it's not even that great...it's basically an inside joke when I tried climbing through this hole located three feet off the ground in a stone block...and my ass was the focal point of a dozen photos. And it's on Facebook...