Outsider

How, after all these years, she wonders

Her assimilation still feels incomplete

Always treading with care to avoid cultural blunders

Afraid that expectations she cannot meet

*

She knows to avoid those nuances that are shown

By new immigrants from her motherland

Hyper vigilant not to commit errors unknown

Staying quiet if something she doesn’t understand..

*

She reasons that she is in a nation diverse

With innumerable citizens who look like her

Yet she feels she is in an alien universe

She knows in subtle ways she would always differ

*

How does she explain to her daughter self-assured

The alienation that she feels in her bones

It’s like an affliction that cannot be cured

It’s omnipresent, at least in the undertones

*

There is an invisible divide that cannot be

Bridged-because that would deprive her of her identity

The blessing of making it as an immigrant in a new land

With the curse of being a perpetual outsider, goes hand in hand..