South
North + West
(core sample)
East
1.
A missed childhood in Asia couldn’t be reclaimed
The Chinese characters didn’t recognize her adopted name
And nobody knows which day she was born
20.
Here is the breaking news
A million people’s homeland is sinking
A million residents needed to be relocated
From where they called home
Those who lost their homes obeyed in silence
The only disobedient one was chained away
He looked back and spat hard on the police
38.
Sister, I’m black
I’m cherry
I’m purple
I’m not Negro
At workshop, a black girl dashed out of the classroom
The professor sat there motionlessly
It took everyone a while to learn this black is not that black
Black is not black
63.
A foreigner wrote to those at home:
I’m working hard and will buy a house for you all
Live here! Wait for me to come home!
74.
The immigrant on Amsterdam Avenue was a widow
She brought her three sons with her to this country
Three sons of three Jamaican men.
From a tropical island
She kept her inspiration and traveled far
88.
Euryken Café between Avenue B and Avenue A
a group of survivors all ordered the $2.95 brunch:
a cup of coffee, a scrambled egg or a fried egg with liquid yolk
two pieces of French toast with butter and grape jelly
Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Hungarians, Cubans, Filipinos
They all are hungry
24.
Iris Chang told her Chinese audiences in Flushing Sheraton
“I couldn’t keep the pictures with babies out of my mind!
The babies were taken out of wombs…”
Iris was mentally displaced after writing The Rape of Nanking
A few years later, she put a revolver in her mouth and was 100% displaced
77.
Four writers and poets gave a talk at a synagogue in Chinatown
The topic was Places Remembered, Imagined, & Displaced
the forever theme—Chinatown, Korean Town, Irish Town, Little Italy, Miss Saigon
Her topic their topic everyone’s topic one topic one voice
99.
He ran away from the concentration camp
He escaped from the Hungarian revolution
He was a noble man in the former Russia
He was the son of a British anthropologist who died in Africa
He jumped into a lake and loved his homeland
The worst killing was when there were no killers to be persecuted
The innocent turned criminals
All losers of the land
2.
Am I the only one who lost both a horse and a home in this century?
Whoever you are
You are my homeland
That’s why she had to go. Keep going, keep moving, keep traveling
She didn’t live unless she left
She couldn’t stop
She was scared of not going
How long it took to develop a disease
How long it took to cure it
