no matter the tongue no matter the creed
no matter the heart that beats in one’s chest
to prove myself worthy I passed every test
yet here only matters your blood and breed
of both I have none I’m an orphaned child
who forgot the sound of his mother’s voice
who never had a saying in his fate’s choice
and is now a foreigner in a foreign wild
perpetually stranger to what is my home
as home still sees me as another outsider
placing between us yet another divider
deepening the symptoms of this syndrome
I look around to see who might one day
strike me with fists of words or even rage
the home I hoped to live in fears change
and sees me as one but I’m here to stay
January 2020