this was written during a residency (Toronto Dance Theatre’s Pilot Episodes) for Sze-Yang Ade-Lam’s piece “pleasure principle”

hookup with my white dad
whoops, here i am
a mistake, but not as bad
as being with a chinese man

and yet, i am still your chinese daughter

how does it feel to see me now?
everything you are not
you ran from it, i run to it
the core of who we are

you pretend, i tell the truth
you are cool, i am queer
you are the flesh, i am the peel
you are the mother, i am the step

you changed to survive… and i survive so i can change