dragon by Emma Chin (14, New York)

one: lessons
i remember my father
talking in the kitchen
about the chinese dragon
as he prepared his lunch.
“it’s a symbol of power,”
he told me,
“strength,
and luck.”

---

​he gave me a smile and said
“i see it in you, too.”
the smile
and the memory
would never disappear from my thoughts for long.

two: lunchbox
i remember elementary school
and the children
with their crackers, apple slices, and sandwiches
all in a brown paper bag
while mine was a large, oval lunchbox
with leftover char siu fan for lunch.
“your lunchbox is so weird,”
was something i heard often
and i would try to laugh it off.
but when the stares were gone
i looked at mine
and then at theirs
and wondered what was wrong with my family.

three: libel
i remember the news
the way some proclaimed it as
“the chinese virus”.
i saw the way
people looked at my family warily in the streets
as if we were cursed
and we would spread it onto them.
those three words
held tremendous power
and we suffered as a result.
the way people looked at us
as if we should feel bad for contaminating the world;
the guilt they pressed onto us
felt so
heavy.
i could not breathe under the weight of it.

four: legend
but i finally remembered
my father’s words
the things he told me
in the safety of our home.
the dragon,
the protector
full of luck.
and i remember
my father’s confidence in me
in his words
“i see it in you, too.”
and so i stand up straight
with my head held high, proud
for there is a dragon underneath my skin
waiting to be let out
and i can’t wait to hear it
roar.

​