One Of These Days

By Anson Wang

We’ll try again. Instead of all this talking we do
Things we should be trying, experiencing
Not thinking about what we’re told we should be thinking about
All we do now, it feels like, is talk 
Nothing ever happens in this neighborhood
What’s normal?

_

Nothing ever happens and the heat wears me down in the afternoons
Scrubbing at dust on the shelves I remember
These walls, how in another’s lifetime, they were white 
Like milk, like school uniforms and worksheets
And rice paper candy
And now they’re beginning to resemble my father’s teeth.

_

All you do is talk, but everyone else just wants to yell
About things we should be doing, preparing for
Hustling like immigrants but we’re American born, American made 
Wired for war, perpetually preparing
Perennially domestic until the time comes
And we’re expected to take leaps, to shoulder the
Regular disappointment, nobody sees the irony
In a 井底之蛙 who wants to journey outside its walls
Everyone is yelling but no one remembers what’s normal
This neighborhood doesn’t understand
How small it is.

_

One of these days
We’ll do something cool, something interesting
Something you’ll remember
I’m home for the summer, I can drive now
Nothing domestic, nothing to be prepared for
Not a leap but something,
Something still.