I want to say that I can remember
more of the day; the energy, the
images on the television screen,
the fear and trepidation of
everyone around me
but memory plays tricks and
at 7 years old sitting in a
suburb on the southeast outskirts
of LA County I had no idea
an uprising was happening on
Florence and Normandie
I didn’t have a real understanding of
“uprising” or “rebellion” or “revolution”
until possibly less than a year ago;
dictionary definitions don’t
create comprehension the same way
a conversation can
Nearly two decades later and
I’m only beginning to consider
the reverberations of this legacy,
how it’s created the Los Angeles
I live in now
We are all children of war,
thankful to exist in a present
while knowing it is owed
to a devastating past.
narinda heng 