Assimilate
She did it to keep me safe
I understand why
America said “assimilate them”
And she only asked “how”
Learn English
Know every word
Don’t worry about our language
That won’t help you here
Bring this food to school
Eat this for lunch in front of the other kids
Don’t bring our food to school
That won’t help you there
Focus on your studies
You have to be successful
That’ll help you here
What she didn’t know
Is that there is no place safe from scrutiny
Not in America
The threat of being “too Indian” had disappeared
But I was now “not Indian enough”
Like a flame blown out by air
Only to ignite elsewhere
“Whitewashed”
The word thrown into my face
They acted like I made the mistake
Like I should’ve known
Known that they wanted me Indian
Just enough to keep me interesting
But not too much
Oh no
We don’t want to hear your language
Smell your food
See you fail
Be what we expect
What do we expect?
Be indian of course
But we may still make fun of you
So don’t be too Indian
But we may still make fun for you
No matter what
We’ll make fun of you
Author Statement: Assimilation is an issue not talked about enough in my opinion. The way it forces a person to push and pull themselves is brutal. I hope to shed some light on this through my poem.