Poem: Aspiring Reclaiming

Written by: Jordan Aspiras

I sit here. and I dig.

searching for roots that are nowhere to be found.

then I hear it,

"baby, you are a child of the sea.

so take a boat. and go.

sail the Ocean,

search the waves

and the shores for who you are."

I am from a land that was unwillingly taken.

I can feel my soul,

pulling me back.

that piece of me

that is connected to the waves

of the Ocean.

that piece of me

that isn’t

quite

sure if now is the right time

to set sail on the journey

that is discovering my identity.

to a land where I have never been.

a land that only exists as images in my head.

and then there is the land

that I will never know

because of centuries of

colonization and imperialism.

there is something unrelentingly

pulling me back.

skeptics tell me,

"you're crazy" and

"don't be dramatic,

you just want to live by the ocean."

but they don't understand.

if I could have it my way,

I'd live beneath the waves,

build castles in the sand,

making my home in the kelp forests.

because the Ocean has always been

the place where I feel most at home.

the Ocean,

does not judge me,

or critique me

for trying to make sense of my identity.

the Ocean

wraps me in waves of love

and reminds me,

"you are the descendant

of the people of the bay."

as I sit here,

I'm homesick for a place that I do not know.

but I am thankful for the people

that wrap me in love like the``

making this journey less lonely.