I Am What I Am

Students read Ending Poem by Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales. http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/morale.htm

Among the poems it generated is the following:

I Am What I Am by Ahlem Dakhlaoui

I am what I am
A young devoted Muslim
And a proud Tunisian.

The oldest of four children
Who looks out for her younger siblings.

I am the agile moves of my body --
The belly dancer in my blood
That flows with the rhythms
Of France and Tunisia
On the streets of the Lower East Side.

I am the bystander of my brother's accident
When he was hit by a drunken lunatic driver
Who ran from the scene.

I am the speaker of foreign langauges
With unfamiliar words --
Bonjour! Comment was-tu?
Salem --
That sometimes confuse even me.

I am the traveler to exotic places --
Paris, Madrid, Tunis, Tolouse.

Yet I am still me,
Not the one who depends on others --
But the young proud Tunisian Muslim
Who hears her mother's words
And sees the world with her own eyes.