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Status: Questionable Spelling by Kenneth Tanemura

I type up a poem about my Nikkei culture, the spellcheck doesn't believe my words. It wants to replace, change them from Mikado to Mocked, Nikkei to Nick, Nisei to Nazi, Bon Odori to Boo Odder, Taiko to Tweak, Chochin to Bake, Manju to Manage, Bussan to Basin. Nichibei, Nihonmachi, Kago's Grocery, Kinmon and Sokoji leave my spellcheck bafffled without suggestions, a white square blank with the undefinable. I click on the skip button, ignoring my spellcheck's cultural ignorance. I skip and keep my words as they are, those beautiful long vowels.

Kenneth Tanemura has a degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University. He is a Yonsei poet who is interested in carrying on the legacy of Sansei poetry--Juliet. S. Kono, Janice Mirikitani, Mitsuye Yamada, James Masao Mitsui, Amy Uyematsu et. al.--while trying to form, with other Yonsei poets and anybody who writes, a 4th generation Japanese American poetic, however scrambled.