“Dimensions” by Xena Amro (Lebanon), Barnard College
-dedicated to mama-
the world is so big
and i am so small to the world
that it kills me when i think how i might not live long enough to see how big the world is
it kills me when i think how i might be missing out on something
somewhere
my ambition is so big
and the world is so small
it cannot keep up
i listen to the corners of the alleys screaming my name in Harlem
the trees whispering my existence in pardon
because today i am not small
my journeys into the world make me big
and i grow
i grow
i keep growing with
every book i read
every person i meet
every road i lead
every country i plead
take me in take me in
my ambition is infinite
i am big i am big
tonight, tomorrow,
i am big
NYC taught me how to go on journeys on my own
NYC taught me how to be free
spiritually and mentally
its people and its history made me grow
and I let it give birth to me
so on the first night, like a baby coming out from her mother’s womb,
I cried
I cried
I was reborn at last in a country that does not know me.
but the world knows, I am no stranger
I have lived longer before I was born
I will continue to live even after this poem comes to an end.