Poems

LISA LOW
My Top 5 Favorite White People

Two live in Chicago. Two are teachers.
RainrainrainrainrainraTwo are over six feet. Two

Rainrainare named David.
Two wear flannel as often
Rainrainrainraas they can. I’m married
Rainrainto one. I had weekly

Rainraincoffee-writing dates
Rainrainrainrawith one before she moved away.

I have the same Nalgene as one. I was one’s

Rainrainrainradim sum mentor.
One taught white fragility

Rainrainrainrato college freshmen
Rainrainwhile wearing shorts. One swaps “we”

Rainrainand “they” when talking about white people
and usually corrects himself. One says

Rainrainrainra“China” when he means
Rainrainrainrainrainra“Hong Kong.” One once
Rainrainrainratold me she was afraid

to visit China. One grew up in Peru. One grew up
Rainrainin rural Indiana and gawks
Rainrainrainraat cityscapes like IMAX screens. One

Rainrainrainratweets about white supremacy
Rainrainin the church, engages in Facebook arguments.

One wonders how he can better
Rainrainrainrainrainrawork under a Black supervisor.

RainrainOne tries not to believe he’s better than

other white people and
Rainrainsometimes fails. I trust one’s
Rainrainrainrainrainrabook recommendations. I miss

one who’s probably on a yearlong
Rainrainrainracanoe trip. I wish one would

Rainrainread the articles I send him on racism
toward Asian Americans without
Rainrainrainrainrainrame bugging him. When I first

Rainrainrainramet one, everyone wanted to be friends
Rainrainwith her, so I didn’t think we’d become
Rainrainrainrafriends like this.




Note: The term “dim sum mentor” is from Dear Girls (2019) by Ali Wong

Lisa Low was born and raised in Maryland. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, Copper Nickel, Bat City Review, Puerto del Sol, Redivider, and elsewhere, and her nonfiction appears in Gulf Coast as the 2020 nonfiction prize winner. A graduate of Indiana University’s MFA program, she is a PhD candidate and Yates Fellow at the University of Cincinnati.