Citizen of a Morphing Nation

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This poem first appeared in FortheSonorous

The morning after the elections results night
I try to tidy up my disheveled living room
Picking up strewn blankets and pillows
As a lone ray of sun knocks on the window

I stand and stare at the glinting suspended dust particles
The date for Naturalization looms in close proximity
Just days from reach, that elusive fruit
I had been eyeing for twelve years en route

Should I repudiate ties with the country of birth?
Knowing that my deep rooted melanin
Dark brown eyes and thick-tongued accent
Would in this milieu be met with skepticism and dissent?

Will I have to ubiquitously register myself?
Sit in surveilled booths in gatherings and stadiums?
Would yellow stars be sewn to my lapel?
A tracking band secured around my ankle?

Will my son return home from school
Whole and unbruised as he had left?
Loyalty and sentience, he’ll be asked to pantomime
Else fall prey to slurs and virulent hate crimes

Will my folks traversing oceans to see me
Be tousled and paraded in airports
Before being sent on a voyage back home
For reasons unrevealed and unknown

Questions, more questions palpitate inside my head
A montage of perturbing visuals floods my eyes
With no answers, no assuages, no assurances
It will be an era of unfathomed endurance

Just then, the sun caresses the coffee table
That houses my Naturalization Exam guide
The coffee aroma wafting in the air warms my insides
The page of Constitutional Rights reflects back the sunlight

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