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norwegian class

a norwegian class just ended
and out came forty different languages
small clusters of people
partaking in the riches
and the revelry
of an oil empire
that appears to be
based on welfare.

forty different histories came out of
this room, forty geographies
a caricature in real life
of zabaan sambhalke

forty rivers on faraway continents
hundreds of different trees
various relationships of months and seasons
many maps of rolling the tongue
around the mouth -
emerged to partake in
an oil empire.

in my university
i repeat:
knowledge production should be local
geographical determinism is inaccurate
communicating personal truths in L3 is hard

and when i sit trying to reassemble identity
and comfort
based on language and geolocation
i am lost.

unable to reconcile what is
upbringing
and what brought me up?
writing and rewriting
a useless autobiography
recompiling languages
i might one day
forget.

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