The Things They Said

When I came into this world…

it was already trying to get rid of me.

The nurse cut me wrong, I was bleeding to death.

She said I was fine.

Luckily, my father was an angry black man,

and he convinced the nurse that I was not quite fine.

When I was in middle school…

I was shy, awkward, and tubby.

My classmates all said I looked Mexican

and talked White.

Ignoring the fact that I was neither.

Now that I’m a senior…

My teachers say that I’ll only be successful in life

If I’m successful in school,

If I go to college,

If I get a degree.

If I do what they say.

My whole life I have been defined by what others say.

Here’s what I say:

I am African, European, and Middle Eastern.

I have lived in poverty and the Middle class.

Between two sisters I am the Middle child.

But I am only at the beginning of my career.