August Issue: Poetry Section

My Inner Voice— Shailja Sharma

Part I

I brought some parts of me

But forgot some back in the homeland

The air, the water, the land, the bugs, and the ice-cream

Everything was different here

The monkey bars were too high

I could not climb them so stayed away mostly

My lunch smelled different than others

So, I did not open it mostly

I spoke weird, but that was an easy fix

I tried to stay quiet mostly

I felt I was in a movie of aliens

Like an “invisible” because no one noticed me mostly

Except sometimes they noticed me a bit too much

Now that I’m a grown person, I think

How kids threw fits when the teacher changed

Their seats in the classrooms

For me the continent was changed

And I had to tweak all the time

My voice was the only kind thing

That helped me.

Shailja Sharma (Ph.D.), USA, is a mental health provider and a multilingual author. Apart from scholarly publication and editorial service, her literary writings have been widely published. Dr. Sharma’s publications have appeared in many literary journals/forums of repute across USA, Canada, UK, and Asia. Her writings have appeared in #1 Best Selling anthologies published nationally and internationally. Dr. Sharma’s poetry book, “Dear Mama: An Immigrant’s Secret Cry,” has been critically acclaimed.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14