two young people taking outside in a gathering, one a white woman, one a Muslim of color.

Shukran

By Eduardo Ramos

 

Thank you for sharing your world
and helping me connect with mine.
For speaking words unfamiliar to my ears
stirring memories in my tongue.
Usted reacquainted me with Al-Andalus
and the road across Africa to Al-Mashriq,
reaffirmed that my barrio is a rich mix of cultures,
where we eat arroz and kipe with our plantains.
Ojalá that others from my island
can find the root you helped me trace,
and that we find more roots,
hasta que we recover
the voices empires sought to silence.

 

Eduardo Ramos is a Dominican poet from New York. His poetry has appeared in Fahmidan Journal and Lit. 202. Follow him on X at @EduardoRamosii.

Photo credit: Jochen Wolters via a Creative Commons license.

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