Here!

I'm finally here and it's here that I'll stay
Today just feels like so happy a day
Been here for a few now
It won't ever end
I'm here with my new bunch of really good friends!

First there was the trouble with gossip
Then I realized they weren't caught up
With preparing for my arrival
But I'm OK - it's my survival
That's the most important thing

And I'm here with new friends
Will it be to the end?
I'm not sure but we'll see
If they like me for me.

I Want to Fly

better than yesterday
but worse than today
trapped inside this asylum
(calls itself an embassy)
no access to civilization
'cept for 1 call an 'our

only reason i'm writing:
miss begley was the one i called today
was going to post a general update
but she told me lanier had a poem on mockingbirds
and supposedly,
that makes me the shakespeare of birds
may i get my wings and fly.

(PS: I found a few poems I wrote earlier on the journey over... here, so I'll post them when I actually get to OWT! Oh, grr. I called MB yesterday and dictated something to have her type up, but I wasn't in a poem-writing mood. Thankfully she lost it and I was in that kind of mood today!)

Lanier's poems (check them out!)

Detained

I'm here!
Finally, home
In the place he called home
Not sure where I stand
But my father once placed his feet
Upon this very ground

I'm here -
I'm not.
I am an American -
For real this time -
I'm not.
I'm Arabic, half-arabic
Half-arabic too much
I'm Muslim, all-muslim
All-muslim too much
I'm stuck at this checkpoint
And there's no way around it.

Explaining the last poem...

I got the title from the first and last lines combined.

It's about my idol who helps me through everything and unknowingly helped this past year.

The line about mothers is about her being a mother, but not mine, but like a mother to me. Yesterday means last year. That is about all that needs explaining, I think, or that I want to explain.

Bad Dream, and a poem with lots of symbolism (for me at least)

Bad Dream

dad announces he is going to iraq
mum tells me on the phone
we'll be fine, he said, mum explains,
he says i feed the baby well
that's why he accepted
what baby? i am too afraid to ask
how much have i missed in only three weeks
thank God it was a dream
but why did it seem so real

how did i reason why?

how did i survive yesterday?
a sideways glance,
an utterance of intolerance -
would you have been proud of me,
standing by
while being mortified?
hoping, wishing
maybe - it is just a phase -
this is just the same.

looking through a mother's eyes -
not my mother, just a -
how does this reside?

do you feel the power you hold
as stories of past years unfold
my hidden strength has multiplied
and you my dear are reason why.

hallelujah

here
in california
the sun is shining
as bright as even
casablanca
rabat
"here's looking at you, kid."
even if the sun was not shining
and rain was falling
and thunder drumming
i would be happy
as it is the weather of adventure

Aha! Thoughts

american history 101
ooooooooooh
shooby-doop shooby-wop
shooby-dah-lah
i'm in america!
there's history and culture like never before
so much more i have in store!
shooby-dooop shooby-wop
shooby-dah-lah
i'm in america!

what if i really was...?
sometimes i wish i'm really her
that famous author
that h a r p e r l e e
who
hid away
and contemplated
life
however
i'm much more partial
to friendship
in a different way than
my namesake