Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Flower

 

-------Flower-------

 

We do not talk 

about the old country

 

As if by erasure 

we might reckon 

with that loss.

 

It has been not yet

one hundred years

 

But our story

is almost 

gone.

 

Assimilation

is slow death.

 

A pledge 

of allegiance

to forget.

 

But we cannot 

forget.

 

For we are more 

than the race 

America gave us

 

In exchange for our language 

and songs

 

More than the dispossessed 

made immigrant

on another's land.

 

We are

more human than that.

 

Miracle

and memory 

of soil and sea

 

A people 

of a place upon this Earth

 

Come a long way

but still 

related

 

Like seeds

to the flower of home.

 

-------

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