Peb Yog (We are)
By Kevin Yang
So ask me,
who we are,
as if a single sentence could define our existence,
as if one page in the history book could speak about our milleniums on this Earth,
as if a statistic could do justice to our numbers
So ask me,
who we are
Peb yog
We are soy milk and frosted flakes for breakfast
We are carnivores
feasting on laj nyoos and qaub,
unafraid of e-coli
We are grateful that rice is gluten free.
We are vegans feasting only on zaub ntsaub,
We are everything in the garden is zaub ntsuab.
We are full stomachs
and
full hearts.
Peb yog,
We are lovers.
We are love
in all of it forms.
We are Gay.
We are straight.
We are queer.
We are ace.
We are hands holding hands.
We never kiss in front of our children, but
We always kissed in front of our parents.
We are black umbrellas and bride prices.
We are patriarchy.
We are feminists who know better.
Peb yog.
We are family.
We are married since sixteen.
We are divorced twice.
We are orphans.
We are eternal bachelors.
We are single mothers holding down the fort,
fathers who cradle children on their backs.
We are grandmothers
who can still tell stories about Laos
before the war.
We are brothers
We are sisters
We are siblings
We are cis
We are trans
We are transformers
We are giants
We are five foot five
even though we write five foot six on our
driver's license registrations
We are bigger than our bodies.
We are bigger than our fears.
Peb yog.
We are superstitions
We are uneaten oranges
at the dinner table.
We hide our ears from dogs breath.
We only point at the moon
with our elbows
We graduate with our doctorates in medicine,
but we still rub tiger balm on everything.
Peb yog.
We are joss sticks
and bowls of rice for our ancestors
We read Exodus
and become jealous of Moses
how he split the Red Sea
wishing we could've done the same
to the Mekong River.
We are prayers. We are chants.
We are bruised knees on marble floors.
We carry the fallen on our backs and in our hearts.
We are alive.
We are beating.
We are beaten.
Peb yog.
We are bruised ribs in Wisconsin forests.
We are police brutality in North Minneapolis.
We are eight shots in the back.
We are not always welcome here.
We are always here.
We are always hearing go back to where you came from.
We are trying to remember where we came from.
Peb yog.
We are Frogtown, East Side, Northside Minneapolis.
We are Eau Claire, LaCrosse, Detroit, Charlotte, Fresno.
We are Xieng Khoung, Nan, Guizhou, Paris, Berlin, Australia, French Guiana.
We are Mekong to the Mississippi.
We are home
everywhere we stand.
Peb yog.
We are ELL in the second grade
and the third grade.
We are bootlegged copies of Rush Hour 2
dubbed in all Hmong.
We are McDonalds signs on University and Lexington.
We are Northside Slang.
We are Masters Degrees in English Literature.
We are Nyob Zoo Kwv Tij Neej Tsa
contestant winners.
We are fluent in tragedy,
speak about struggle
like it's our mother tongue,
swallow hope
like it's mov nplaum.
Peb yog.
We are the children of the future
playing kaw taub
with our elders
a winding game of back and forth
traveling in spirals.
We are dab neeg told at campfires
We are Hmong immersion schools on the Eastside.
We are poems
We are kwv txhiab.
We are hip hop.
We are Paj huam.
We are contradictions.
We are harmony.
We are Generation 1
We are millenials
We are Generation 1 million.
Peb yog.
We are growing
We are complicated.
We are human,
the same way
We are invincible
in our flaws and
in our perfections.
So ask me,
who we are
as if you weren't expecting an entire story
understanding that by the time I finish speaking,
I'd have to start all over just to capture every new
stone that we've turned over since,
So ask me,
who we are
understanding that we have so much more to go,
but we've we come so far already
So ask me,
who we are
and we will tell you
Peb yog
Peb yog
Peb yog Hmoob.
