On My Sleeve

I wear my identity on my sleeve
Because it is all too often forgotten
I wear my identity on my sleeve
Because I fear one day,
I too shall forget
I wear my identity on my sleeve
To yell from the rooftops
This is who I am
But I forget how inseparable I am
From my identity and culture
Ocean Vuong once said, “Even if I were to write the word the that is still an Asian American the”
My identity is
inseparable from my
culture, inseparable from my
ancestry, inseparable from my
heritage.
Everything I touch, leaves a mark
Every mark, touched by who I am.
Though schools and institutions,
Peers and mentors
Nations and its leaders
May ask me to lay aside my identity,
An identity that threatens:
Their version of the story,
Their version of their nation,