The Dances of a Stranger
What will it take
for you to see me
as someone like yourself
and therefore just as worthy
of tenderness?
Ah but I am different from you: look at the color of my skin,
my eyes that slant just so, and I am short, so short! I wear these
shoes uncomfortably, more accustomed to the sandals worn in
my hot and humid country. And so I wonder:
Is there a look I need
to assume
a cut and colour of dress perhaps
that I need to wear?
To fit in, to blend, to integrate, to be one of you!
Are there words I need to know
and to pronounce just so
that I may speak and be understood
and that you might listen to me?
Because the sounds that were whispered into my ear
when I was born are words you would not know. The songs my
mother sang so I could sleep—you would not understand. I have had to
learn a whole new language so I could speak to you. To my surprise it
is no guarantee that you would hear what I have to say. And so again I
wonder:
Is there a dance I need to learn
that I may move with you
in synchrony
and that you may smile and say,
“That’s beautiful”?
Tell me
what is it I need to do and learn and be
to be invited in
from the outside
from the cold?
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Marilynn (Meyen) Quigley’s Part 2: The Dances of a Stranger (The Poem) is the second installment of a two-part series on the immigrant experience. In Part 1: The Dances of a Stranger, Meyen recounts their journey from the lively streets of the Philippines to the isolating silence of Victoria, B.C., navigating the challenges of displacement, cultural adjustment, and the search for belonging.