teach your tongue
to neglect how it used to
twist, and bend, and fold.
be more supple, more rounded, less harsh.
wrench out the consonants
tangled in your throat,
let the “r’s” roll, no, fall
from your palm.

undance to the sun’s melody,
gobble your “æ’s”, “å’s” and “ø’s”.
and maybe one day you’ll sound white enough
to overlook you’ll never be fluent.
european enough for them to excuse
you look like the brown girls
the tv tells them to resent.

when I learn a new language,
I do not forget my own.
but I pretend not to hear it, understand it.
too coward to find out
whether this bløde og blodige mouth
prefers to speak in silence instead
of poems.

***

- Sade Andria Zabala, Learning Danish/Forgetting My Mother Tongue

Buy my poetry book WAR SONGS: tinyurl.com/WARSONGSsaz

***

After last night’s victorious win for Social Demokratiet and the red block, once again, immigrants are caught in the cross-fire of Western politics. Thus, it felt right to share this piece, which reflects upon the challenges, isolation, rejection, and diaspora faced by being a foreigner in socially cold (and often xenophobic) Denmark. Social Demokratiet won partly by changing their stance on immigration, specifically by wanting to make it more difficult for foreigners to be able to work, in order to “accommodate” and prioritize jobless danes in the market. In spite of this, I have faith the other center and left/red parties will find a way to negotiate. To find a balance where both danes and foreigners can work and pay tax to help strengthen welfare services which have been cut down repeatedly, while the rich got richer, and the poor became poorer. Here’s to hoping for a more empathic, welfare-based regering, that will learn to welcome immigrants and give us space in society, and who will push for a greener, anti-plastic Denmark; punish corrupt banks/CEOs/government workers; and increase the tax on polluting corporations - a Denmark, once again, centered around workers and the middle class, regardless of race, instead of just a priviliged few. That or we’re leaving, along with the other international families that are sick of this bullshit lol. ????????