Kyle Liang | A Lesson On Immunology | Poets Resist

Kyle Liang is a first-generation-born Asian American and author of the chapbook How to Build a House (Swan Scythe Press, 2018). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tinderbox, Apogee, Hobart, Anomaly, and Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins. His poems have been nominated for the Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and Pushcart Prize anthologies. Kyle lives in New York, NY and works as an internal medicine PA at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell.

Kyle Liang's website.

Also by Kyle Liang: How to Build a House No | Bùyào A Tracing of Our Shoeless Feet

Poets Resist
Edited by Alicia Cole
March 20, 2020

Kyle Liang

A Lesson On Immunology

let go of my throat so I can cough free your fear from my trachea my diaphragm is exploding I step onto the subway with white flags tacked to my skin I whisper to my nose begging please don't run then take ten paces to the nearest empty seat my mom calls to tell me the Chinese aunties are sharing videos on WeChat of Asians in white masks getting their lungs ripped out their chests by white men searching for weapons of mass destruction she cries there's no use in wearing white masks in public we're under attack either way our bodies at war with the world and a virus so I close my eyes and imagine a day I no longer feel like a guest in my own country I hold my breath waiting for when I'm the host and not the pathogen

”A Lesson on Immunology” is a poem in response to the heightening xenophobia across the United States as a result of the recent spread of COVID-19. Although I work in one of the biggest, busiest hospitals in New York City, I tried to avoid conversations about the virus until we knew more about it. However, I was recently on the phone with my mom when she told me that her friends on WeChat have been sharing videos of Chinese people in white face masks (a preventative measure, cultural norm, and fashion accessory commonly worn by East Asian people) being attacked on the street. Thus, my mom begged me not to go in public wearing a face mask, afraid that I too would be targeted. As you can imagine, I was disturbed by this news and concerned for my parents and others in my community who, unlike me, speak English with an unmistakable immigrant accent and don’t need a face mask to be the target of a xenophobic attack. I was afraid that we as a country are using a public health threat as an excuse to be racist and to regress as a society. “A Lesson on Immunology” is about my worries, my concerns, and my disappointment in the American people who have allowed their fears to quell their humanity.