A is for apples shipped fresh off the 

Boat. At 2 pm we left math to go where

Children are taught

Differences between

English and English at home.

For example, Sun-Ah who named herself Sunny

Grabbed blue pills from a plastic bag,

Held the medicine in her palm. Teachers called me in—

Ibuprofen, I say. I am seven,

Just learned the word because Sunny sputtered

Korean that they’re painkillers.

Look, English was my second language but

My tongue was new.

Never had to teach me to curl my Rs

Or how to say girl, blueberries, raspberries. In second grade, I

Played Peter Rabbit’s mother rabbit, still don’t

Quite know how that happened or even

Remember what my lines were.

Still, when the Chicago Field Museum unveiled Sue

The T-Rex, I was Sue the dinosaur, before that, Sue who lived in an old shoe.

Usually I said “Yes, like the T-Rex without the useless e at the end.”

Versions of my selves in ESL exist but I was kept there, after proficiency.

Who else could translate for the teachers, my parents, and Sunny’s parents?

X was for xylophones, x-rays, and now xenophobia.

Yes, that’s too on the nose, but things on your nose are hardest to see.

Z is for a zero, zigzagging between classrooms to say she has a fever, she misses home.