DETROIT SLOWDOWN

I pour down the ramp

thick as crystallized honey

collected from local hives

line up and hold steady

slow as michigan spring

slow as bureaucracy

slow as dreamless sleep

tens of thousands of cars on my ass

right foot light pulse on the gas

left foot steady on the clutch

all I can see is open road

ultimate american dream in motor city

why my parents left korea

the promise of freedom

fuck jack kerouac

and his white male privilege

he is not on the road with me

the blank canvas of road is mine and my ancestors

I slow down for my grandparents

who converted to christianity

because the american missionaries

were the only alternative

to japanese rule

for my mother’s mother

I choose to slow down

because she was not given the choice

betrothed in childhood to a stranger

bearing daughter after daughter

after daughter after daughter

after daughter

weeping after each birth

until the necessary son was born

my mother’s mother

who held me in her womb

as the ovum carrying my dna

formed inside my own mother

I slow down for my mother

capable of flying but forced to walk

behind my father per confucian custom

I slow down for my mother

who tamed her anger

by learning to love jesus

and fled early to the kingdom of heaven

unable to find it on earth

I slow down for my father

who never dared to slow down

who worked himself into an early death as well

who stifled his protest for so long

his brilliant mind atrophied

until he could no longer speak

I slow down for my adopted city of detroit

city of radical self-governance

determined to chart her own course

never mind the attempted corporate takeover

and the manufactured emergency

instead of rushing headlong into privatization

we meet outrage with outrage

turn the other cheek in first gear

with blinking hazards

I slow down for my suburban sisters and bros

pounding on my tail

because if there were no prisons

we would realize we are all in chains

because harriet tubman would’ve freed a thousand more

“if only they knew they were slaves”

I slow down for their gas guzzling sierras and expeditions

I slow down to honor vincent chin

who looked japanese enough

to be beaten to death by a white mob

for stealing american jobs

as a blonde sister leans out of her white suburban to shout

BUY AMERICAN

because I am an asian woman driving a volkswagen

her voice a blaring bullhorn on repeat

BUY AMERICAN BUY AMERICAN

BUY BUY BUY

AMERICANCANCAN

as if that would fix everything

I slow down to piss you off

if that’s what it takes to wake you up

I slow down to make time to breathe

slow soft inhale

slow soft exhale

I slow down to wonder

what is next