Best Poems Written by Madalyn Klingelhoefer

Yours

When everything is torn away from you,
when the tapestry of your life is unraveled thread by thread, 
what is yours to hold?

Your name,
the one with a cultural meaning that has become heavily shadowed, 
is not yours anymore.
That was one of the first things they replaced.

Your native language is not yours, either.
Seclusion and shame are now the price to pay for speaking your mother tongue.

Your clothing is not even yours, 
all garments of a foreign land.
They are constricting and unfamiliar.

Your education is no longer yours,
as they've changed the school system to only serve them.

You are left with nothing and cannot hold on to anything.
The tapestry has been ripped to shreds and is thought to be beyond repair.

How could you maintain your sense of identity, 
when they proclaim it's not yours anymore?

Copyright © Madalyn Klingelhoefer | Year Posted 2025