Where are you from?
my children are asked
not because of how they talk,
or how they look, but how
we look with one another,
this unfamiliar form of family
we have put together,
and when they answer, Here,
North Carolina, the South,
they’re not believed.
Africa, a classmate says,
Your parents adopted you
from there.
aaaaaaaaaaaaNo,
my daughter explains,
I was born in Charlotte.
The girl continues to insist,
No. Somewhere in Africa.
My daughter comes home,
where she’s lived all her life,
where she recognizes everyone
on both sides of the street,
where she intimately knows
each tree in a three block radius,
and she recounts the discussion.
We all agree it’s puzzling
and wonder how to respond.
We ask if there’s something
she wants us to do. Perhaps
talk to the teacher or parents.
Yes, she says, there is something
she wants. Maybe, before dinner,
we could put on some music,
and dance together, here,
in our house, our family,
such as it is, such as we are.
A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills holds an endowed chair, the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities. He has published four collections of poetry with Press 53. His fifth collection, This Miraculous Turning, will be released in September 2014. More information is available on his website and on his blog.