rooted in harsh soil

by Aliza Susatijo

in a perfect world, i would not exist

my grandmother would have never left the Philippines

in search of a job and enough money to bring her two young daughters to america

my mother would have gone to the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines

 fulfilling a now abandoned dream of becoming a nurse

my father would have never lived across the globe from his family

as they moved back to Indonesia

a plant torn from the ground

instead, he stayed in america

leaves adrift in the wind

alone

in this broken world, i thrive

because sometimes a dystopia is just reality

a harsh reality, full of adversity and injustices

yet my parents face the future all the same
finding each other in a series of occurrences that must be fate

striving for a Dream only recognizable in a utopia

but in this foreign soil, fresh stems of green can sprout

their children: my siblings and i

our roots planted firmly; cementing a familial legacy 

guided by the calloused hands of my parents and theirs before them,

i carve my name into the tree bark of this damaged world