To my bystanders

by Deborah Jang 

 

People stand by during attack of elderly Asian woman – Associated Press 

 

Did you catch a whiff of lilac 

on that warm summer eve 

while we gathered at the bus stop, 

each wandering our mind?

 

Out the corner of your eye 

did you flinch, did you see him 

rushing twilight, pushing rudely in?

 

In a flash of recognition, 

did your stomach tell your throat 

what was going down?

 

Did you see my toes curl fetal 

while I lay sideways 

on the concrete stunned?

 

Did you freeze in fear and horror? 

Did you look the other way? 

Did you reach down for your phone 

or was it already in your hand?

 

Were you scared to intervene? 

Did your silence cheer him on?

 

Was it you who kneeled down 

and whispered something kind 

I didn’t understand?

 

Did you see my bruised face on TV? 

Did they say my name? 

Did they even try? 

 

Copyright © Deborah Jang. All rights reserved. 

 

Deborah Jang’s creative practices include assemblage sculpture and poetry, based out of Denver, Colorado and Oceanside, California. Her debut poetry collection is titled Float True (Shanti Arts, 2020). Her new chapbook is Last Will and Best Guesses (Finishing Line Press, 2022). deborahjang.com

LAST WILL AND BEST GUESSES by Deborah Jang

"Deborah Jang knows the terrain of the human heart. In Last Will and Best Guesses she offers an unflinching meditation on mortality and mystery. Jang taps into our shared experiences from the pandemic to racial reckonings, the environmental crises, the plights of refugees. She writes candidly about the workings of her mind, which are the unspeakable workings of ours too. She muses on connections and consciousness that alter and deepen through recent and ongoing trauma and settles into grace. This is a rich, relatable book to pull out again and again." –Terra Trevor is a contributor to 15 books including, Take A Stand: Art Against Hate. 

"Deborah Jang writes through a raging global pandemic, when a “planet [is] spinning off its axis,” gathering strength to face its uncertainties and attendant anti-Asian violence and sentiment. This is a reserve, for herself, and future generations, and I am nourished by her work." –Diana Khoi Nguyen is a poet and multi-media artist whose book, Ghost Of, was a 2018 finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. 

“Mind bent, nose blown, fingers crossed./Head bowed, going home.” Deborah Jang writes to the rhythm of life while examining death and all its intricacies. This chapbook is an exhale and a deep breath." –Vogue M. Robinson is the author of Vogue 3:16 (2014) and served as Poet Laureate (2017-2019) for Clark County, Nevada.

Last Will and Best Guesses by Deborah Jang, Finishing Line Press

Community

by Kim Shuck 

 

Grandma lived with this peppernut 

Sapling and tree 

They drank the same water 

I know that the creek is here 

Under ground 

Under thought 

Near the lilac 

Someone’s relic of a different life 

Someone’s idea 

Carried from somewhere else 

On a quiet day 

When there has been rain 

Rest your cheek on the trunk and hear/feel 

Water 

Running in cracked pipes 

Grandma 

The tree 

The elderberry 

The salamander 

The sense of humor 

The fog 

Each water particle 

Rhymes with the life here 

Whispers kinship 

To the cracked and layered 

Rocks on this 

Hill 

 

Copyright © Kim Shuck. All rights reserved. 

 

Kim Shuck is the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita. Shuck is solo author of eight books and one that is on the way. She has edited or co-edited ten volumes of poetry. She contributed essays to the recently released de Young 125, a collection of writing about and photographs of pieces in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her most recent collection of poems is Exile Heart from That Painted Horse Press. www.kimshuck.com