Sprouting Up Roots

I wrote a little while back that my poem Sprouting Up Roots had been accepted for publication on the website of The Cynic Online Magazine. I was notified that they would feature my poem in their July 1st edition, but they posted it early, in their June 1st edition. I've been so busy that I didn't think to look for it before the July 1st date, so I actualy missed the debut of it's online publication, but it is still available in their archives. I'm also posting it here.

Sprouting Up Roots

I'm a meat and potatoes lovin' kind of girl
What could be more American than that?

Baseball
Apple pie
I adore those things too

To some
I'm just another foreigner
Sprouting up roots
In the soil that belonged
To their forefathers

Theirs,
Not mine

After all,
I have no ties to George Washington
No link to Thomas Jefferson

I listen to excuse after excuse
And bite my tongue
I play along
Pretend it doesn't matter what others think
Try to ignore the fact that it really does matter to me

Push myself further along
Toward the American Dream

All the while
Longing
To sink my hands into the dirt

Plant the seeds
That my grandmother
Gave me as a little girl,
Grow a history
To make my ancestors proud