He glanced upward at
the dancer, his wallet bulging
singles. The writhing white body on the Fancy
Pants Club stage was
the incorrect
object of his gaze
for which he was
bludgeoned by a
baseball bat, mistaken for Japanese—
when the rising yen, and the influx of Toyotas and Hondas and Subarus threatened to
usurp automotive factory jobs in Detroit, Michigan, a wilderness of spare parts, rusting.
So much for a bachelor party,
where tinsel, sequins, and feathers whirled away—
and bartenders ignored the greasy dollars, quarters, dimes, and nickels on sticky
countertops, and the untouched shot glasses brimming kamikazes.
The baseball bat
that killed Vincent Chin struck a homerun toward heaven—
leaving behind on the baseball-sized earth #StopAsianHate hashtags decades too late.
Hiromi Yoshida is the author of five poetry chapbooks. Her poems have been included in the INverse Poetry Archive, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and other awards. While teaching poetry for the Indiana Writers Center, she coordinates the Last Sunday Poetry & Open Mic program for the Writers Guild at Bloomington, and serves on the board of directors as a literary arts representative for the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington.