Decoding

By Neiva Franco

Whenever I hear text about being proud for who you are

your background

your race

your gender

they each tell a story about

“identity” 

how unique it is from others

Though

confusion runs through my mind

How can we define ourselves through appearance/background?

If we look around the room

we can find people who can be the same color as us

speak the same language

age

gender

Aren’t we all the same then?

Well, you can acknowledge me by my hispanic appearance/roots

and think you know me

my lifestyle

the food I eat

the music I listen 

my way of acting

thinking

but 

you don’t know me

and we

and us

because

we aren’t unique by our race or background roots

We are so much more than our color

class

gender 

hair type

You can judge me all you want

through my writing 

the way I look

dress

you can assume that am pursuing to become a writer/author when I get older

because i'm standing in this room

presenting my own poem to you

but you can’t assume that you know me

that I love playing guitar

Practicing till am as a bit close to Hendrix 

I don’t know what your guessing

the force sciences, especially chemistry and physics 

is pulling me by how intriguing it is 

rock n roll

or soft melodic music

history and old film

or even that I love Al Pacino and Robert Deniro and their films

We have so much more to offer than our ethnicity

As Toni Morrison wrote

“...to keen intelligence, integrity and rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other..”