Point: Counterpoint - Eddy Hong's Brave New World

Point: Counterpoint

Eddy Hong’s Brave New World

dedicated to Eddy Hong, my FB friend

Point: About you

Risk taker

snake wrestler

shadow boxer

truth telling confessor

of all things hard and personal

personal and hard

I admire your take no prisoners stance

on podcast and Facebook

You’re humble

just not too humble

scared but not too scared

muscling up now

for the long haul

I’m just sayin

Ya gotta start somewhere

‘n now is sometime

cyberspace da somewhere

way ov’r da rainbow

da crazy blinkin rainbow

da place for yous

cuz I’m too far down da road

tripping down da yeller brick

to be of use to yous anytime further

Counterpoint: About me

Man! It eff’in fucked ta wake up

‘n realize I’m old

It’s da hands that give me away

an old person’s hands

Da white hair adds drama

a sexy kinda dramatic flair

But da hands

fluttering und’r da sun so many decades

give me away

like I ain’t ne’er been given away before

Fear is learned

and experience burns

wrinkles into my heartsoul

No regrets, my friend

maybe a few hiccups

of hesitation at the memories

pauses for reflection

reflection and forgetting

Oh, man, did I really do that

did I really say that

did I really mean that

I’m afraid I really did

I really did all that

and more

I’m sayin

In my time

my peeps loved my bravado

cheered ‘n clapped

enuf to propel

da wave of resistance

to win da war

in da workplace

‘n da homefront

sacrificin only da captain

exiled into another life

on another continent

It may as well hab been da moon

I wasn’t of use ta them anymore either

This is what it feels like to be used up

for a reason

in a season

but not forev’r

Ya learn ta reinvent y’self

becuz ya gotta

becuz it’s survival

becuz it’s what we do, man

My relations:

It’s who we are, man

Point: About you

You’re learning not to blink

your gaze direct

man to man, person to person

your inward gaze an X-ray

into the interstices

of sinew and blood relations

Boy, I’m just askin

where did that little smile

in da corner of yer mouth

come from

How’d ja learn ta stare

into the camera that way

Was it from talkin to yer ma

Was it from talkin to yer ba

Counterpoint: About me

From my ba

I learned what to do

and how to do it

From my ma

I learned what to resist

and how to avoid it

The yin and the yang

The parent I adored

and the one who survived

The lesson here:

You don’t get to choose

I’m just sayin

Is anybody listenin?

[Check out Edward Hong's podcast for the I Am Korean American blog site at http://bit.ly/gRlwrW or here:

I am proud to call this young Asian American my friend. I'm sure we'll see more of Eddy as poet, performer and actor.]