she sits, uniformed
like her classmates;
delivery, foreign
by most measures
as total freedom
is her life inheritance
at this age, before ceremony –
stories of country and
multiple languages fill her head
but English is difficult
and on community
not complementary to business

school is outcomes’ based
results and attendance driven
borderline enculturation
by the dominant narrative

she has 70,000 years
ancestral connectivity

already, she is anything but uniformed!

First published by Friendly Street in “New Poets 19” 2018