Sigred Yamit
The F Word
is an abominable word
and abominable is a hard word
my Asian tongue can’t keep up
with my half-white mind
trying to recite Byron
with a mouth just
fresh off the boat is
an arduous task
like a broken dam
with no water gushing out
like a cow escaping the
factory only to find another
grassless wasteland
my mother heard
herself on the phone
and hated her accent
You sound okay, Mama
she sounds like every other
Filipina immigrant
elephants and whales
are shamelessly fat
it’s okay to sound Filipino
if you’re Filipino
Sigred Yamit's poems have appeared in Printable Reality, Poetry New Zealand and Mimicry. In her spare time she watches puppy videos, writes poetry and daydreams of sunsets in Manhattan.