There Was The Day

There was the day a beautiful woman from Jamaica stood on the sidewalk in front of our Brooklyn home with her son by her side and screamed at my Japanese wife with our son in his stroller to Go Back To China! There was the day we moved upstate my wife standing in the Rotterdam Square Mall trying to find Macy's a little girl caught her eye pointed and screamed Go Back To China! running back to her approving parents. There was the day at the zoo in Kyushu when I knelt to tie the loose laces for my 3 year old son as I finished the bow a little boy pointed at us and screamed Gaijin! Gaijin! I held back my tears and hugged my son close, took his hand, as we walked away to see the tigers in their cage. Sitting on my shoulders he pointed Papa, Papa, Tora! Tora! and I wept without sound.