do you understand my home? are your parents from this country? I am ten, there are too many rules, too many parts I can’t make sense of. how many aliens do you know? how many aliens live in your house? I remember the citizenship, the ceremony, a test, we ate cake, there were crowds. does your mom pack your lunch with food our classmates can’t pronounce? how many times have you been told the meaning of the word sacrifice? did your parents grow up the way we’re growing up now? this whole time I’ve been learning to explain myself. I’ve been learning to explain my past to my present and introduce it to my future. I am five, or nine, or any child age. I am stuck there, sometimes. do you get this predicament? do you think today we can play at your house instead?