Water

There is a nation
My people came from
It is supposed to be my home
Open my mouth and
I am a stranger
Everyone hears it in my tone
As I fumble through the language
Father wrote my mother poems
And I wonder
Is there a place where I belong
A place where I belong
There is a nation
I'm born and raised in
It is supposed to be my home
I am a stranger
Here in my own land
Everyone hears it in my tone
Speaking Spanglish
With an echo
Of an island I don't know
All my features
Tell my neighbors
I'm too other to belong

Where is the water
Where is the sand
Where is the sky and
Where is the land
Where is the nation
Where is the flag
That treats me as their own
Where is the kindness
Where is the hand
Where is the neighbor
Where is the friend
Where is the welcome
Where is the love
That I can call my home

There is a nation
I'm born and raised in
It is supposed to be my home
My people been here
For generations
Still I'm unsure if we'll ever belong
Brown versus board of assimilation
Hollow the victory
Tokenization
Still in the ghettos
Still segregation
Natives still suffering on reservations
I am American
I am as true as it knows
Red white and singing the blues
Blacks and Indigenous
Hated by the very nation
They built with our ancestors bones
I am a river polluted
With greed and with theft
I am a protest with flesh
I am the thirsty dark children
Still guzzling lead
Still no one can answer me this

Where is the water
Where is the sand
Where is the sky and
Where is the land
Where is the nation
Where is the flag
That treats me as their own
Where is the kindness
Where is the hand
Where is the neighbor
Where is the friend
Where is the welcome
Where is the love

I am the kindness
I am the hand
I am the neighbor
I am the friend
I am the welcome
I am the love
That you can call your home