Please See Me ~ a poem by Jennifer Tran

READY” by gingerybamboo (Creative Commons: BY-ND 2.0)

Name: ████ ████
Date: 5/25/12
Period: 0
Score: 0 / 6

“Please see me.”

Chapter 5 Test
Evaluate the following given expressions. (SHOW YOUR WORK and do NOT use a calculator.)

1. sin¯¹ (½)

My father’s mother died last night.
I do not call her
Grandmother
In my native tongue
Because I have forgotten how.

Answer: ( Was it bà nôi? Or was it Bà ngoại? )

2. arctan(1)

He sat at the phone,
Prepaid cards littered around him,
As he waited for calls from
The brothers and sisters
He left behind.

Answer:

3. cos¯¹ (-√3/2)

And my friends,
They look at me with
Misplaced pity
In their eyes when I tell them
Of her death
Just to fill the silence.

Were you two close?
“Hm?”
You and your grandmother.
“Oh. Yeah, kinda,”
I lie.

Answer:

4. arcsin¯¹ (-½)

My father,
He’s been through so much.
The family he’s lost,
The memories long gone.
The oceans crossed,
Our worlds so apart.

How could I ever tell him.
How could he ever understand.

Answer: I don’t know.

5. Word Problem: A 12 foot metal wire is attached to a stop sign. Attached to a stake in the ground, the wire makes an angle of 63º. How far from the foot of the stop sign is the stake, to the nearest tenth of a foot?

He’s never asked me
How has your day been?
Because if the answer is anything other than
“Fine”
Then what would be the point of
Crossing oceans
And losing family
In search of
A better life.

Answer: I don’t know.

6. Word Problem: The distance between America and Vietnam is 8,568 miles. The weight of your father’s burdens outweighs and overpowers anything you will ever experience. Calculate the distance between you and the stranger in the next room.

And when he punches the wall
And shouts until he’s red in the face
I say nothing—
Of the calls from administration
Of the pills in my backpack
Of the days where I

Walk to the end of the street
And stare over the bridge
Daydreaming
Of finally being able to rest—

Because I know
That it could never compare
To the loss of
Ancestral ties,
Severed connections
Across oceans.

So why
Do I feel so heavy,
As if my grandmother,
Whose name I can’t remember,
And every ancestor
Who has sacrificed much more than I
Are weighing me down
And sinking me into a muddy river
Across a dusty farm in a village
In a country that

Answer: I don’t know.

How can you ever hope to pass if you refuse to put in any effort? Please have your father sign this.


Contributor’s Bio

Jennifer (Jenn) Tran (she/they) is “technically a writer” and an aspiring bog witch who enjoys drinking tea and writing stories with long-winded metaphors and anxiety-ridden protagonists.

2 COMMENTS

  1. This poem is NOT about my ancestry but I see the ancestry of so many I know and the feelings they may have. It is a window for sure. Thank you.

  2. literally leaves me speechless. this was so beautiful and personal in a way where i felt like it was speaking to a feeling in my heart and mind that i never have faced on my own before, but have definitely felt. love this so much!!!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here