Conviction

The rebellion
on my island
is
continuous,

with every waking day
the fighting begins 
again;

a faint lady enraged 
holds onto the 
horizon,

just enough
for me to know
that my island 
is still
there.

Transition Ills

Bright bulbs shine
dim in here,
and shadows
wreak havoc
on our perspective.

It’s no wonder 
that so very few 
survive
the experience of being
cast out
into the blinding light

These poems are published as part of A World Without Cages, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s project on The Margins that imagines the end of mass incarceration and migrant detention by bringing together the work of writers on the inside and on the outside. This project aims to nurture writers, activists, and intellectuals to dream new worlds beyond punishment, policing, surveillance, segregation, and exclusion. Read more in the project here.