Korean Americans

All the names have been changed.
I am not trying to generalize about Korean-Americans. I am just trying to write about their lives.

I am in Charlotte, North Carolina. I don't remember the year. Sometime in the 1990's. I am working at my father's salon/hair care product store. Kevin walks in. He talks about various things and then disappears. He comes back a few minutes later. He talks very fast. I ask him where he is from. Boston, he says. I'm so glad he's from the Northeast. I am so bored of the South.

A few weeks later, he invites me to a barbecue that his father is having. His father is bringing his new or not so new girlfriend. Kevin is adopted. He has American parents. At the barbeque, I begin to talk about how professors have told me how good my writing is. I feel important when I say this since all other aspects of my life have gone down hill. Kevin talks about various things. I can't remember what he said. He's bit rough. He's big into Steven Segal. We agree to watch a Steven Segal film. Kevin talks about how there are no Korean American action stars. His father agrees, Someday.

I invite Kevin over to my house. We have a few beers. I show Kevin my writing. He says that my writing is full of "non-sequiturs." I reluctantly agree. He thinks a line in my poem about the explosion of the nuclear bomb in Japan funny: "Their bodies were like gravy." He is very amused.

I begin to like Kevin. I've always been attracted to rebellious spirits. I watch "On Deadly Ground" with him and despite my reservations about Hollywood, I like the film. He loves the film.