WE WRITE HERE
  • ALL AWARDS
  • Writing
  • How it works
  • Workshop
  • Updates
  • Educators
  • Editors
  • Contact
  • Supporters

We Write Here

Write to be creative, fearless, and free.
Submit Writing Here
Latest Award: Loftrun Utyard 1/20/2020
STARTED IN OAKLAND, CA | SEND IN WRITING ANYTIME FROM ANYWHERE | 6th-12th GRADES
​Join in: Weekly Challenges- WRITING WORKSHOP
DONATE
Monthly email: awards - subscribe

Immigrant Speak

5/14/2020

 
Aditi, 11th - San Ramon, CA
What’s in a name
besides history and turmeric powder,
bloodline and hibiscus roots,
and truth playing atop a mango bough?

Jhumpa is no Nilanjana,
but nicknames chime sweeter than cumin-spiced
syllables for strangers to cough
through (better for business too).

Yet when my father stumbles on
the sticky branches of homographs and idioms,
no one bends their trunks of pompous language
to make room for him to pass through.

So thank God my father slashed the mango pulp
of his surname
in half and grafted it to my newborn roots. Short
enough to escape crooked tongues, though

the yellow smear of a bitter-flavored accent lingers
to remind me: had I not been born in the land of the
free,
these lines would have rhymed enough,

and this name would be mine.

Comments are closed.

    Authors

    Students 6th-12th Grades
    We Write Here!

    month

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018

    grade

    All
    10th
    11th
    12th
    7th
    8th
    9th

donate: Writing awards


​Terms & Conditions 
 Sponsors
​


Copyright © 2018
  • ALL AWARDS
  • Writing
  • How it works
  • Workshop
  • Updates
  • Educators
  • Editors
  • Contact
  • Supporters