my grandmother is arrested 5 times
before she is allowed to step her heel onto cigarette concrete
lady liberty is not a copper-rained statue, iconic image of freedom
lady liberty is 17, and is my mother
her first time in America, with her first job
counting american dollars at an american store
called Batman
my grandmother’s first taste of america
is her hand feeling for the kick in my mother’s belly
when ma visited back from that 40 hour work week
I was not made in america
but i was an idea that sprouted
on a plane that bridged
across the atlantic
i am performing immigration
and when she has me, on a hospital bed
after hours of my body trying to run out of hers
i am performing citizenship
as the daughter of an immigrant
my first grade class only spoke spanish
i told my teacher it was a mistake, because i spoke english
she asked me, “are you sure?”
i told her, in english, i knew more than this
i had never seen so many confused faces
they changed my classes
but not without
sneaking me a slot of ESL
i guess it is courtesy of america to do this
grab all of the kids whose names end in “ez” “ta” “ia” “ra”
give them an american friend who doesn’t know why they spend
american lunch in a hispanic classroom instead of american cafeteria
and let her ask them
“why did you have to be so stupid?”
when i told my mother
in her american broken english she told me
“she is just sad
her mother doesn’t love her
saca buena nota que ella no te puede decir na’”
i listened to her
i took my american education
and america
ate me up.
this is what happens when you try to own a language
america says you are too stupid to learn
teacher tells your mother, you deserve a future
where textbooks aren’t thrown like stones
teacher tells your mother, she has never met a student
who has turned in loch ness monsters
instead of goldfish
you write america an american universe
and the bits of you bridged from
Dominican Republic and New York,
drop into the atlantic
you cannot stop it
when america burns a bridge, the bridge keeps on fire
america says you can only choose
one side
lady liberty is 44, and is my mother
she prays over me at night, in Dominican spanish
first she gives me her blessing
and then she passes the torch
there isn’t anybody
that can say anything
about me.
Scarlet Gomez is a graduate from The City College of New York with a BA in Creative Writing. She has previously been published in literary journals such as Persephone’s Daughters, Breadcrumbs Magazine, Promethean, and Crabs Fat Magazine. She spends a lot of time re-watching The Office, working, or eating with her boyfriend.