i heard my own tongue speak words that seemed alien to my ears...

I listened to the cadence...

to the measure of it....

and felt like I had betrayed...Myself...

like I've been infected with a germ of my own choosing...

like i had hidden my BELONGING....

the last outward vestige of my identity...

believing it to be temporary....

fooling myself that it would be only temporary..

that the immediate priority is to PASS...

I heard my voice today...

the hills and valleys of my life..

RAZED by assimilation.....

muddied by an inferior dialect that knew nothing 

of color and identity in the context that was my birthright...

I listened to my voice today...

and i was an alien to myself..

I was ashamed.