Never Within Reach

Dear Asian Youth,

Expectations are vindictive things,

Pulling and grasping and twisting

At the thin lines of your limits,

Warping them and then asking for more

more

more

They are greedy, rapacious, hungry things,

Eager to steal your sense of worth and value.

And even when you have been wrung dry,

Even when you have offered all that you have,

From the oxygen that fuels your blood,

To the skin that covers your palms,

It is never enough.

Expectations you see,

Are like the purest and softest white

Of the stars that glow at night.

Are like the round silvery curves

Of the moon that shines at twilight.

Always within view,

Yet never within reach.

Any attempt to grasp at it,

Is a futile and desperate thing.

Because for each shaking breath you take,

Each painful step you make,

It brings you no closer to the light.