“My uncle once told me he played games such as Scrabble and Words with Friends to improve his vocabulary and understanding of the English lexicon. How simple and ubiquitous these games are in North America, yet so often they favor the native English speaker who has the ability to sculpt words so perfectly with only seven tiles in their hand – perhaps, it’s just luck of the draw. If only the non-English speaker could somehow convince others to play using a dictionary that they themselves have read through completely – perhaps, a perspective re-defined.
This particular game of Scrabble is played using letters from a poem I have written, which is the only rule added to the original game of Scrabble to create this piece. The carrying case of this game is engraved with the genome sequence of an octopus. Scientists often refer to this creature as an alien, a word not unfamiliar with those who are immigrants, such as my uncle. “
-Kenson Truong