only an american

Just like the Brits to rename our country

with a P: a letter we don't have, a sound

our tongues wrestle to say. It's not Palestine

like old buddy, old pal, old friend, but Falastin.

They'd know Arabic is phonetic if they could

read, but that's an occupier for you—unwelcome

guest. We have names impossible to mispronounce

& yet they expect the world to say it their way.

In their new country, my grandparents

give their children "good American names"

impossible to mispronounce by the native-born

of this land. They called their first child, a daughter,

Patricia—with a P. Because who would believe

an umma & baba from Falastin would name their

child with a letter their mouths refused to speak,

damned to a lifetime calling her Badrisha.

Only an American would do that.