“it has taken me this long to take the word american back into my mouth
it has taken my elders shaking me by my shoulders

you cannot shirk responsibility for this country
you cannot shake off these atrocities
its a bloody birthright
all children are born into blood
you have to grow up by growing down into the soil
past the burnt bodies and broken buildings
built on broken bodies and broken promises
built up, bloody borders
borders you live in whether you want to or not

you are the ones we’ve been waiting for

it has taken me this long to understand that i cannot escape this mark, ‘american’
branded into me with every breath
every right and privilege
every whisp of superiority that shudders
down in those darkest places”