Sun
I am Language is
I am not entirely grateful for English
I am good at how I read, speak, write and listen
even though I can’t fully claim that by the outskirts of my informal tongue
I am not enough as I read, speak, write and listen
I am not celebrated but challenged
I am constantly at war – speaking and writing, even though my people had their fair share
I am not entirely grateful for English; the colonizer’s work in stone
But I am within English
Language is the manipulated land mass that surfaces
From the trenches of hellish land disputes with unmarked territories of dialects
Language is the longest and loudest migration
A road trip with many other languages packed in the backseat
Even though English is easily in my reach
Language is distant simplicity
Language is conniving
But language is within me
I am not entirely grateful for English
A language so far from me yet so familiar
Rising still from concrete, language is I am
About the Writer
Sun is a community performer, poet, and lover of words. Her body of work is comprised of experiments, quirks and hidden codes. She is of Somali descent and resides in Toronto where she has shared her bulldozing articles and essays on current issues, stigma and personhood featured on Canadian magazine Black Cabinet and webzine Araweelo Aboard.
Editor: Emily Norton
