Poetry: “On the Appropriation of Joy” by Đenise Hạnh Huỳnh

On the Appropriation of Joy

after Toi Derricotte

I am trying to see clearly. When you tell me joy is resistance
& talk about the fish she could not stop from dying: what
are you telling me? Yes, there is still joy to be found,
even when we cannot stop our loved ones from dying.
My plumeria tree rotted to the root the other week

so I cut her down to the stem & put pieces of her in small
mason jars to dry. I am trying to save her & I know I will
fail. African migrants are arrested on Canal Street
while you drink your matcha & eat your chè
& tell yourself joy is resistance.

You buy your LaBuBu dolls & dress them up in tiny
cheongsams for sale on Temu. You fly to Barcelona.
You scoff at your mother's worn-out Louis Vuitton.
You fawn after your sister's new bleu Hermès
as you whisper to yourself joy is resistance.

About Đenise Hạnh Huỳnh

Đenise Hạnh Huỳnh is a heartland poet and a PhD Candidate at the University of Minnesota. Currently, she is an international visiting scholar at the University of Toronto. Born & raised in the Dakota homelands of Mni Sota Makoce—Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds—she grew up in an intergenerational Việt-Canto refugee home alongside medical device factory workers, postal service carriers & defiant culture bearers. Her poetry has appeared with Haymarket Books, Water~Stone Review, diaCRITICS, Coffee House Press, Literary Hub & others. Her next poems are forthcoming in an anthology with the University of Minnesota Press. Find her at denisehuynh.com