[Poem] Surprises in America

Ten years ago, I first uploaded this performance of my poem "Surprises in America," one of my more well-known pieces I read in the early 2000s. As I look back at it now, I find it interesting I opted not to include it in my first full-length collection On The Other Side Of The Eye, but did include it later in my 2009 collection Tanon Sai Jai. This poem was inspired by a number of incidents growing up in the Midwest, and I believe I'd finished it sometime before 2003, when I discovered my long-lost family after my first trip to Laos in 30 years.