Confessions of a minority student

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I have forgotten how it all started.                                                         success

This tightening of my throat grows                                                                 success

and I cannot breathe. Suddenly                                                  success

college dorms and students’ smiles                                                                 success

nauseate me. Here where I used to                                                                 success

imagine a promising life, a new circle                                        success

away from family, honest folks                                                    success

who worked and worked, and never lived.                                                   success

Choices they never made in their sagging skin,                       success

the fine lines around their eyes.                                                   success

Uni: a mere word, carefree                                                            success

for those who can afford it, my dear.                                           success

Who am I to believe in it?                                                                        success

But I must prove that I too                                                          success

am good enough for this game.                                                  success

Don’t be so sensitive, you say.                                                        success

But even racism in its simplest form                                                  success

is brutal, a day-to-day butchering.                                                                success

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They tell me make yourself at home here                                 success

though today, just like yesterday and                                                   success

the day before, no one joins me                                                 success

at the dining hall where I sit.                                                                  success

Who cares about what I think                                                   success

as I cube potatoes in silence?                                                      success

It is not alright                                    to be lonely.

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Jennifer Wong (jenniferwong.co.uk)

Born and grew up in Hong Kong, Jennifer is the author of three collections, including 回家 Letters Home (Nine Arches Press 2020), which has been named the Wild Card Choice by PBS. She studied English at Oxford and received an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. She has a Creative Writing PhD from Oxford Brookes where she teaches part-time. She is also a translator, a reviewer and runs the What We Read Now online monthly poetry series. She is currently a writer-in-residence at Wasafiri. ninearchespress.com

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