A poem by Yukari

I am here

Where are you from?
Again, someone is asking me this
right at the Heritage Festival
under the beautiful summer sun

I’m from here.
    No, no. Where are you really from?
    By the way, you speak good English.
I made this town my home.
I’ve been here,
growing older,
spreading my roots under the ground
under my favorite red roof.

A displaced person –
a poor, poor person
who is not in her own country.

I’m quite happy here, thank you.
The only things I miss about the country I chose to leave
are family and friends who did not come with me
and – ah – beautiful stationery I can’t buy here.

But
I have my life here,
living, working, paying taxes, and
drawing Xs on ballot sheets.

Little memories that make me smile
bitter memories that turn into funny stories
I am piling them up right here in this town.

I live here and I am settled.
Who are you to try uprooting me from where I belong?

I am here.


© 2009 Yukari Meldrum

In Dymphny Dronyk and Angela Kublik (Eds.). (2009). Home and Away.
Edmonton: House of Blue Skies. p. 132