This poem was commissioned by the Seattle Arts Commission for the 2014 Mayor’s Arts Awards.
When i first asked for your name,
You said call me…
Seasonal Depression
Call me Overcast ,
Gray-faced rainfall
Call me flip-flops and tank tops
As long as the suns out and its
in the high fifties
Call me home homie,
Call me Filthy, dope,
greasy, janxy
Call me Souf End, CD,
Cap Hill, Beacon, ID, SoDo,
Renton, Georgetown
Call me now entering
Gentrification station
Thank you for boarding Link Light Rail
Call me push the brown people south
KENT IS FUCKIN HUGE
Call me Capitol Hill Aint Brown No More?!
Damn was that the 80’s
Call me Hipster Town
Call me Downtown ain’t
what it used to be
Call me Construction Catastrophe
Please dont call me when you realize all these
cranes look like nooses
Call me Too shy for “Hi”
Call me Passive Agressive
Call my actions racist,
just don’t call me out
Call me every time
someone uses the term
“Reverse Racism”
Call that Bullshit
Call me when you’re done looking up
Racism in the dictionary I’ll be sure to call you stupid
for forgetting who wrote the dictionary in the first place
Call me when the talk about racism
is over because i get too incomfortable
Don’t call me privileged I don’t
even own an I-Phone
Call me Bro-nouns
Call me when you’re going to Urban
Outfitters
Just don’t call me when my outfits culturally appropriating
Call me Thrift Shopper, Just don’t call me Macklemore,
I was thrift shopping before it was cool
Does that make me a hipster or a person of color?
Maybe both, Call me both
Call Me Pho during rainy days
Call me runny nose brat mispronouncing
other culture’s food names on purpose
Call me Igot a black friend
so now I can say everything’s ghetto right?
Call me nigga because
…there’s none of them around
Call me nigga because this
black friend is cool
Call me when you realize,
what I’m talking about it this poem
Call me HELLA CLOWNIN
Call me truthful, Call me observant,
Call me Citizen, Call me townsfolk
Call me when you can tell the difference
between me and other people in this poem
Call me home, homie
I think i will just call you
Seattle for short.
Photo by Naomi Ishisaka
