- (Hyphenated) American

​- (Hyphenated) American
because you see me waving a flag
that does not contains stripes and stars
and it enrages you to see my delight
without taking the time
to know that my pride
is born from the pain of being so far
for so long, from my native land.

- (Hyphenated) American
because you scream at me that “your” language I must learn
meanwhile, you can’t even pronounce my name
but I’m not surprised that you can’t manage to learn one word
when your history you still refuse to learn and own

- (Hyphenated) American
you confuse the Hyphen with a minus sign
adding a prefix to your narrative of who I am
in your eagerness to minimize my worth
you forget that adding doesn’t make me less, it makes me more
you ignore that one day I took an oath in front of a judge
and I was declared by my pledge and by the law
not African-American nor Native-American
not Latin-American nor Asian-American
not - (Hyphenated) American, just American
same as you


Nestor Gomez 04/22/2019