Poetry | Timothy Liu

My least favorite

Shakespeare play

 

in junior high had to be

 

A Midsummer Night’s

Dream. Seems no one

 

really wanted to play

 

Bottom, get turned

into an ass inside

 

that play within a play—

Pyramus & Thisbe

 

was it? I always got

 

overlooked for any

parts with lots of lines—

 

wasn’t white enough—

 

played those parts

where I wasn’t

 

required to speak—

 

the Changeling, or

worse, the kids asked 

 

me if I wanted to

not try out for the Wall

 

but the “chink” the wall

 

held. Everyone had

a good laugh, even

 

the teacher. Later on

 

that year at the cast

party, a stud who starred

 

as Lysander came up

 

to the punch bowl

and asked if I preferred

 

Nips over Cheez-Its—

 

hahahahahahaha!

There were no words

 

for microaggressions

back then. I got good

 

playing the butt of jokes,

 

not knowing how on earth

I’d get the last laugh

 

when the curtains fell.