Lament of an invading weed in another’s garden
Ripped from the soil of my homeland
Pruned and reshaped to serve the foreign master
Denied the light of my native sun
And the waters of my mother’s love
I was forced to grow in land that was not my own.
An alien plant in someone else’s garden
Growing and replacing what already there
Indigenous life pushed out to make room.
Still grown not for myself, but for those who would own the land.
My own guilt is manifest in the sickly flowers that bloom on my branches
The very soil rejects my attempts to take root
Denying me a place and a homeland
Neither can I return to my primeval forest
The garden of my origin no longer recognizes me
Nor does it accept me as its own.
I belong no place, I have no home
So I offer myself to the Earth
I ask her to connect me in whatever way back to her.
Can I be used by the true gardeners of this other place?
Will they shape me and reform me to match the nature of their garden
Do I deserve to be pulled out by my roots and thrown into the fire?
As is the fate of a common weed.
Do I die to what I was and allow myself to be reborn?
From the seeds that fall into this new soil
Becoming something that I never was before
Becoming less of the other, and more of this place.
May I live to see the day where I belong to the land
And the Earth accepts me as her own.
May I serve the people of this place
May I bear fruit that nurtures and enriches all in this place
May I find a home, not as a foreign invader
But as a beloved transplant welcomed home by this place.
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