A review by lauren_endnotes
Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi

5.0

The lines are long and my mom insists
that the final amount is wrong.
The cashier looks at the receipt and insists that it's right.
My mom purses her lips, looks worried,
says, it's not right.
The line of white people behind us groans.
My mom won't look back at them.
We both know what they're thinking
Small woman with no knowledge of the way
things are in America.
Though year after year
she makes flowers bloom in the hood,
petals in the face of this land
that doesn't want her here.
Finally a manager comes, checks, and tells the cashier
she rang up twenty-two plants instead of just twom,
overcharging us by forty dollars.
My mother holds my hand
leads me away
without looking back
at the line of white people
who overhear
and gasp,
their sympathy won.
If only I was old enough
to tell them to keep it;
it's not my mom's English
that is broken.

--Frank's Nursery and Crafts

Loved the prose poetry in many of these poems, and the storytelling quality. Bao Phi themes many of the works around Asian American poverty and experiences both in childhood and adulthood. It was a masterful collection, and one I will likely go back to read over. A late read in the year, but definitely adding it to one of my 2017 favorites.