Headline reads:

by trish le

cover photo by kristen seo

89-year-old Chinese American 

woman set on fire. What? No, seriously, what? 

She didn’t do nothing. Police reports, it was 

nothing. You think nothingness has led you to 

the other side. It doesn’t. You are confronted

with your grandma. The silence passes over into 

forgetting. Now let’s be a we. You feel it, huh? 

Something is wrong. Where is the we stand with 

you? This is the help that matters. This woman 

matters. You check under your tongue, find only 

shame. It is bitter. In the face of this, the silence is 

deafening. It fades away. White noise. It still 

buzzes in your ear. The price of nothing.