I’ve been fighting off this feeling for longer than I can remember
The longing to understand a language that your mouth fails to bend to
The longing to have a home
(Frantically) Looking for it in people
In the beds of lovers
searching for it in the sky
In the underlands
The need to drive to my mother’s house
for a Sunday family lunch,
The need to stop wondering if they know I’m different,
that I’m not from here
To stop wondering if they can see it in the way my eyes slant
The way my nose curves
The way I say my a’s and my e’s
The need to not always be
A stranger

A mystery
A foreigner
—-
Foreigner:
It lingers over you like an unpaid debt
Ringing and echoing “you do not belong here”