I told my teacher

When I moved to the US

I first learned Haikus.

He laughed and replied

“It’s an irony, you know?”

I told him, “yeah.” I

Thought of a half life,

Trying to grasp what it means:

“American life”

“American kid”,

“American poet”, and

“American” me.

What was “citizen”?

How do I become one who

Fit in the nation?

Haikus arise in

Japan, closer to China,

Before the US.

Yet it was always

American to me since

I was so much less.

Tell me, tell me, does

This citizenship have a

Requirement for

A nation to count

Who is and who isn’t?

Everything borrowed,

Everything blue and

Red and white but nothing is

New.