Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Olga Alexandru

As the incoming administration builds its agenda of attack on marginalized people, on freedom of speech, on the earth itself, poetry will continue to be an essential voice of resistance. Poets will speak out in solidarity, united against hatred, systemic oppression, and violence and for justice, beauty, and community.

In this spirit, Split This Rock is offering its blog as a Virtual Open Mic. For the rest of this frightening month, January of 2017, we invite you to send us poems of resistance, power, and resilience.

We will post every poem we receive unless it is offensive (containing language that is derogatory toward marginalized groups, that belittles, uses hurtful stereotypes, etc.). After the Virtual Open Mic closes, we hope to print out and mail all of the poems to the White House.

For guidelines on how to submit poems for this call, visit the Call for Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience blog post. 

***

Immigrant
by Olga Alexandru

I don't know what it's like to have olive skin

in a country so pale

because it never occurred to me that it was different

so I tell myself, inhale

I know what it's like to wish

these brown eyes blue

because it's what I envied

wished for, too

I don't know what it's like to be Jane or Sarah

but I know what it's like to have extra letters in my name

that are undecipherable

without strain

I know what it's like to have English as my fourth language

but have it be the first now

to feel the lack of my mother tongue

and so often wonder, how?

When eyes are on me

I know what it's like to act tough

to keep the expression off my face

when you say this country's not big enough

I don't know how to be Romanian and Canadian at the same time

to not fit firmly in either box

to reconcile the in betweeness

so I wish someone would just open the doors and locks