someone sneezes at a Mai Der Vang reading

and I am infumed. ㅤ ㅤ I missed
that word you hypocrite ㅤ you jerk
you have no right to be in this room
witnessing this monumental
display of art.

I am infuriated
because she resembles my aunt
& I hate it when someone tries
to interrupt my family gettogethers.

Not only because the fine lines
of her smile coincide with that
of my aunt’s ㅤ but also
there’s this same aura that shelters
everyone around the both.

I even think they have the same
name ㅤ if their names are scrubbed
off i.e. ㅤ ㅤ my aunt gets her
from the Arabic root amrㅤlivelong!
and though I googled I couldn’t
trace the Hmong etymology
of hers ㅤ ㅤ but I think it must be
if not lonongevity then the afterlands.

(first published in Poets Unlimited by the author https://medium.com/poets-unlimited/someone-sneezes-at-a-mai-der-vang-reading-77355ad3db7f)