"A STORY TO FAMILY"-By:Crystle Presa

I wrote this poem in response to break the media image of Asian American women, as well as break the image of how my family percieves me and how they assume they know the real me.


"A Story to Family"-by: Crystle Presa
Young, dumb, pretty, and naive is all you think of me.
Look where I've grown up, what I've gone through, and where I'm at today,
How can dumb and naive even be a possibility?
In a testosterone driven world, respect and acceptance granted to a double headed people.
Respect given based on physical strength and thoughts of cerebral smarts.
Lemme break it down to you my brotha, I own it.
Mentally capable, inner strength is what rules me to those before.
Brown colored skin resembles royalty and greatness in my book, striving for better, working hard at any cost.
Exploitation of my sisters on the screen, don’t you see it’s a white man’s corporate dollars running this fictitious game?
Educated with state smarts and street wisdom, mama didnt raise no fool.
A brown bitch under minority lines, you think you have it hard, double up on my pain.
Independent to stand alone head to the sky, following the kulintang beat of my heart.
Graciously walking through bamboo obstacles
I choose my own path, not conforming to society, but what's right for me and the god that judges me.
Error pop ups, woman enough to own up to mistakes and grown enough to learn from them.
Misunderstood, underestimated, and complex, you think you know, but the diary says you have no idea.
I'm grown. I've grown.
A woman. A pinay to be exact.