Two People
I’m at the cusp of two different worlds
I can’t step into the shoes of one
Or the other
I’m caught in limbo,
Tangled in disorientation
I see and feel so many individual impressions,
But when I try to stitch it all together,
The thread falls out
Sometimes I can feel hope of the pieces fusing,
Sometimes everything is chaotic
Different cultures gather around me,
standing face-to-face
They rival and they war
Neither seem to ever triumph
Maybe we can come to a compromise
One where both sides don’t come out peeved
Where two worlds combine instead of conquer
Where two people don’t have to speak silently
Communicating in charades with myself,
But I knew her and she knew me
We knew similar worlds
We wrote similar stories
Of the ugly duckling
Finding our truth
We witnessed the heroics in our fantasy tales
The unstoppable character of our constructs
We yearned for their ability to find themselves
When faced with a mirror
Revealing their saccharine facades
So we decided to reach
For the uncharted puzzle in our heads
And ignored the pre-fitted templates
We were fixated on for so long
I embrace the ambiguous matrix
The vexing puzzle becoming home
Two people with one heart
Estranged no more
Julia Jhirad is a young creative writer who’s inspiration comes from the nature around her as well as from the little things in life; from the euphoric pop music in her playlist, to the little gestures people make. This poem is about her personal experience of being biracial. She wrote it both as an explanation of herself and to encourage other people to embrace their unique qualities.