How to be Haitian

How do you become H-A-I-T-I-A-N?

You have to be poor.

It’s a miracle to be fat and

You have to eat cat.

You can’t feel higher than sludge.

And you can’t be better than mud.

You’re supposed to have immigrated by boat,

To hear people demote.

You have to practice voodoo,

And be treated as no more than goo.

You have to be ebony black,

And if found 1 degree lighter,

Many puzzle.

No wonder so many of us feel so sad-sack.

Ew!! You have to stink as much as a rotten fish!

Talk about HBO. 

Pssh! Never mind our hospitality!

Never mind the ways we aliment our bodies

Never mind our culture, nor emerald Colored waters,

Never mind our history nor ways of life.

You have to be little bush people

And to the world, be a cripple.

How are you to be defined by society?

By race?

Ethnicity?

Religion?

Sex?

Am I--- to be underestimated? ---for my lack of Americanism?

Well, I am Haitian.

I can’t change it.

Nor do I want to.