Confession of a Tiger Dad
I tell my wife that I want our daughter
To be a doctor.
“You want to be a stereotype?”
My wife asks.
“Can’t an Asian-American father
(note the hyphen) want his daughter
To be a doctor
Without risking being a stereotype?”
“Maybe?”
“You know I’m a curmudgeon when sick.
I just want her to take care of me in my dying days.”
Our daughter puts her Peppa Pig figurine
on the coffee table and turns around.
She stomps her feet, arms on her chest,
head shaking, screeches at me,
“No, Daddy. I’m a Mermaid.”
Bunkong Tuon is the author of Gruel (2015) and And So I Was Blessed (2017), both poetry collections published by NYQ Books, and a regular contributor to Cultural Weekly. He is also an associate professor of English and Asian Studies at Union College, in Schenectady, NY.