I am what I am

For a girl like me

Who often gets questioned who she is

Who was never quite enough

Not enough foreign

Not enough American

The statement is bold

I have searched for the self that is true

The self that is nestled within

Doing my best to battle the misinformed

Message that burrowed itself deep

Into my blueprint

A message that has infiltrated

My layers

Mimicking the structural foundation

Of who I see when I look within

This message ripples through

And into my beliefs that

I as a whole

Am not enough

But as I bring my consciousness

Back to my body

Focusing on the sensations

Like the touch of the sun

Arms of light reaching mine

Illuminating the sheen of my skin

I know

I know that this skin

Is something that no one can take away

Because

No matter what I do

I will always be brown

I will always have these large slanted eyes

This low bridged nose

These wide cheeks

And lived-in lines

A body

Decorated with scars

And freckled with marks of beauty

Sometimes

I leave this body

And get stuck in

A swampy daze

With a grip so tight

That it feels impossible to break free

But this skin

This skin that wraps me

With hair and

Marks from stretching itself…

It is brown

I am brown

I am the color of earth

The color of the duck’s feather

The color of bark on the tallest tree

The color of harmony

I am the color of my people

Far reaching into the lands

Of Southeast Asia

And Mexico

I am sensitive

And growing

Just as the curve of the willow

I protect

And beautify

The earth that I emerge from

While I am still

Getting to know

Who exactly

This little brown dot is

I know that I am what I am

And I am enough.