I am from Liberia

I am from Liberia
I had to run away though
With my aunt and cousins we all ran
I am from my feet being sore
And not eating for days
I am from running across the border
to Sierra Leone
I am exhausted
I am from people being kind to people threatening us
I am from sleeping in a mud hut all together
I am from a refugee camp
Where slept on the ground
I am from people getting sick
to dying
Mainly from water problems
I am from going to school there
To arranged concerts
To soccer games
And a church
I am from making friends
I am from war starting in Sierra Leone
I am from busses picking people up
I am from the busses being so full we couldn’t fit
It was like a zoo
Crazy
I am from getting split up from my aunt and younger cousins
We didn’t know where they were
I am from worrying about them
I am from staying at a college campus
Again there was no room for us
I am from sleeping in the sand
I was warm
Rocks and stones dug into my back
I am from deciding to go back to Liberia


I am from a fight starting there again
I am from running
This time to Guinea
I am from two days without anything
I was tired
I am from not knowing their language
The sounds all a blur
I am from learning there are no refugee camps in Guinea
I am from all of us staying with a friend my cousin made
I am from getting money and food from the Red Cross
I am from learning that my aunt and younger cousins moved to America
I am from arranging to join them
I was so happy
December 25, 1997
I am from getting kicked out of our house
A suspicion was that we were rebels
I am from having enough money to rent a house
Our applications to America were progressing


October 1998 we came to America
We had a party
I am from laughing and crying
I was happy to be there
I am from looking back at my memories
Thinking about my past


I am from arriving and going to high school
Now I am a freshman at the
College of Staten Island
I am 21 years old
I am from feeling at home here
I am from having trouble at school
I struggle and get stressed
I am from being expected to be like everyone else
I am from hearing gun shots and cries for help
It comes back to me fresh
I am from it being hard to concentrate
People do not understand
But I’m still trying
Intuma