Each table
Covers the globe
The students, not mine
But ours, each others
For the moment.
Find commonalities
Share names
And your favorite
Flavor of ice cream.
Innocuous items:
Find someone who
Doesn’t like broccoli.
Camaraderie
If you go back
Far enough
Means roommate.
In this room,
Laughter and movement,
Nobody too afraid
To speak English
Right now.
Find someone who
Is an only child.
Only one:
Chinese teenager
In a room of 30.
Some have ten siblings.
We have one.
Of our own.
Will she be
An only child?
Is that possible,
With two fur creatures?
And a bin full
Of sometimes
Animate friends,
Zoology 101.
Time and place.
We point to the map.
Moldova, Algeria.
Countries not often
Heard from.
I can hear enough
To know:
This is America,
Newly arrived.
So many
Brothers and sisters.
We have so many
Blood is only
One way
To measure.
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Previously Published on Medium
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