When You Ask Me Who I Am Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

I. Where it happened

I tell you I was made in Ukraine
but she delivered me in Russia and when you ask
where I tell you Vladivostok and Kiev which
are 4,432 miles apart and when you ask how come
I tell you poetically far falluting reasons.

II. Being nosy

Upon you inquiring how long I lived here
I respond longer than you have and wonder
if that makes me more American than you
because you appear to be half my age.

III. Dotting i's

When we further refine our acquaintance
I find you're from the east coast
where I first disembarked but now have been
on the west coast much longer which I presume
makes me more Californian than Massachusettian
though being from Boston somewhat compares to being
San Franciscan and may rank us higher than being
from Brookline or San Jose.

IV. The Fall

However our respective downfalls are that at first
I resided in Roxbury instead of Jamaica Plains
and you in Burlingame instead of Hillsborough
and while I attended Boston U you went to San Francisco U
and when I came to UC Berkeley you were in Mexico
which wasn't as prestigious as being at Harvard.

V. Respective Put Downs

And so goes our acquaintanceship until we speak of politics
when having discovered my being from the old country
you ask me if I've ever been a Commie to which I say no
I never been one but I can see,
you, you were a Hippie judging by that flower
against your temple and the green 5-leafer patch
and that chicken foot scratch tattooed on your ankle.
VI. Attempt at metaphysics

And when we speak of spiritual beliefs you tell me
you're a Zen Bullshitist and I counter I'm a fricken Nihilist
and there our metaphysical aspirations wrench us apart.

VII. Upmanship

I mean I come down the Dostoievski and Tolstoi lines
not those of Paramahansa Yogananda or god knows
what other out of this world Moonie hodgepodge.

Now you name my Barbarian origins
from Genghis Khan to Taras Bulba and I say no, no,
I have blue blood from Napoleon and of course
you laugh because you can trace your roots
all the way back to Jesus and the Chosen People.

VIII. Doubts

By now I ask myself who really am I and if
it's important to know
when we don't know what we are at the next moment.

IX. Way out of Line

All I know right now is that I earn four times
what you earn which makes me that many times
better off. Therefore I must be a true American!