“Dad, I miss you”
I want to see you
Hug you
After 3 long years
Call me selfish
But I want more than just your voice
And the glow of a computer screen
It will be my birthday and college graduation in a few days
It should be the happiest time of life
Yet I can’t stop crying
Why?
Because the US denied him a visa for the 8th time
This is not immigration, this is not illegal workers
This is my father
The man who paid for my expensive college education
Denied the 2 weeks he wants to spend with his daughter
For my graduation
For my birthday
What have I been working for?
When I was valedictorian in middle school and high school
When I got straight A’s in America’s number 1 public university
What is their worth when my dad can’t be here to be proud of me?
This land of “opportunities”
This land of broken families
It’s not enough that they denied me
From seeing my mother at age 5
It’s not enough that my parents divorced
Because love dies as the US denies
It’s not enough that after 13 years here
A citizen like me can’t experience the simple joys
Of inviting my dad into my home
Why is he denied?
Because having a wife and son
A high income job
Plus 3 properties in China
Is apparently not enough
To guarantee that he won’t refuse to leave America
As if he has anything to gain in this shitty US economy
“Why not just visit him instead?”
I would if his psychotic wife and son
Didn’t chase me away with a knife
The last 3 times I tried to visit
So I waited 3 years
For the moment when my university
Can send graduation invitations
It’s the only way to see him again
It’s the only thing his paranoid wife would allow
Too bad it’s not something the US would allow
Dear US Visa Consular
All I want is two weeks with my father
To show him my campus, go hiking, and just have dinner together
For all the family moments that some take for granted
I’ve never had any
I begged in my letter to you
To please don’t take this away from me
But you did
You took away all of my hope
I’ve never been more ashamed
To be an American
In this land of the free
I am not free
To be with my family
Not even for two weeks
So all I have left
As the tears roll down my face
Is the cold glow of my laptop
And the words
“I miss you too”