attn: all international students, bcc:

 no one comprehends your loneliness

you who are suspended// between// two countries,

hanging in flux in time and space, digitally

exiled and yet equally plugged in.

You know all the hot issues in the US election,

and yet you cannot vote, 

you know next to nothing about the politics of your

own country.

Foreign student, all greased up with idioms and chicken soup,

shiny and slick with the heavy hopes of your family for that

Coveted Big U.S. Degree to hang on a wall,

to continue upwards and outwards. 

you return home halfway through a semester, 

not in disgrace but in haste, fleeing the advance

of a virus you don't understand- 

no one does, don't worry. 

C'est la vie. This is life. Fuck,

i am both mature for my years, and an imbecile

in other ways. I know how to set up a La Grange equation,

i cannot boil an egg.

I am fool and foolish, I am loved and beloved,

america is as distant as a dream, i can't believe

i used to walk down its Boston streets and eat

turkey ham and pulled pork sandwiches. 

'Do you know collard greens?' I ask everyone back home-

they have no clue. Spinach? Not quite. 

To be honest, I have no idea.

I am almost as American as Apple Pie.

One day my children might look at me and think

We were almost born in America. 

And would this be a curse or a blessing?

To be honest, I have no idea. 

if someone tells me to go back to where i'm from,

i'll tell them they need to buy me a map. 

because i've lost track of the threads of history

that has dropped me in this confusing confluence.