Thoughts On The Fourth Of July

I did not have to take any extraordinary risks

To get here

Didn't have to make my way 

Across a temperamental ocean 

Crammed aboard an overloaded boat 

Full of people leaving behind 

Everything they had ever known

Family

Friends 

Common language

Common culture

Didn't have to pay some stranger 

To stow me away in a truck full of people 

Packed in like sardines 

All hoping to make it across the border undiscovered
Alive

 And with at least a chance of blending in with others like me

Didn't have to forge papers or identification

 Didn't have to steal an identity

Didn't have to live in fear of being taken back 

To the homeland I fled

All of  that was taken care of by my ancestors

 The people I never knew from whom I am descended

They risked their very lives on a chance 

That life here would be better than it was there

 That here there would be opportunities 

Opportunities to work

To learn

To become something more 

To make something more

 For themselves and for their children 

And their children's children.

I'm just a descendant of very brave

 Very strong 

Very determined 

People 

And for that I am grateful