Poem: Unraveled Me

Text: Nathanya Lennvall
Photography: Nathanya Lennvall
November 25, 2021

Audio: Listen to this poem read by Fatima Verwijnen. The recording was done at the reader’s home.

I am a child and they are asking me something

Something I don’t know the answer to 

Who are you? 

Planting a seed in my mind, quiet

I’m asking myself and I’m looking deep inside

I don’t know 

Who am I?

 I am a teenager and they are waking me up

Asking over and over again

“Who are you? Where are you from?”

I take a breath and I stop thinking

I’m growing and I wonder, I have an urge to know

Am I not just like you, no? 

Who am I? 

I am a young adult and I’m travelling back home 

Coming to a place I’ve only dreamed of

This is the place of the stories I’ve heard my whole life

I’ve woken up and I see, I’m alive

Contrasting trees and contrasting soil

a cinematic touch of light and the hot wind

kissing my skin and hugging me 

Quite different ways to be 

They know I’m different with just one glance at me

I’m as white as can be, just came from the snow to this heat

like paradise to me 

They are amazed when I try to speak Somali and encourage me

finding my voice

made me feel at home, liberating me 

I am not like you nor you 

Not like they or them 

But a mix of two

Who am I?

Now I belong without fitting in

I wanted to find me, I did 

In the heat and in the cold I’m home 

Finally awake I’m standing out as me, I’ve grown

Both here and there standing out I’m free

I found home 

I, it’s me 

I am home 

I am me