Munyerenkana Germaine Namegabe 

Has raised me to be independent

Has given me indescribable strength

Acquires my character to be unique

Foreign like my ancestors are

So do I have documents to work

Let alone can I speak English

Are interrogating questions I face

 

Behind Munyerenkana Namegabe

Moon-year-ren-kana is an African American

Who speaks fluent English

 Yet restricted from opportunities given

Munyerenkana automatically prohibits

My oppurtunites and others to pronounce it

Munyerenkana is not worth sounding out

Instead we become ignorant and question

 

Questioning things learned in grade school

All because of  Munyerenkana Namegabe

I am courageous like the definition

My name brings chaos but means heroic

This will not define me my actions will

Pen and Paper give me freedom and restriction

Can I truly be free with words 

Or threatened is an unanswered question

 

I'm like a chameleon I blend in

Society says stand up straight

I respond accordingly or I'm lazy

I'm told talk proper or your ghetto

All actions being used to fit in

I take action with my script

Words can mean everything or nothing

So I say what do words mean

 

Words let me explain

Explain how I feel

Being Munyerenkana Namegabe

My peers laugh and joke

To me I see no humor

I feel pain and hatred

Towards my parents and peers

Why make my name hard

 

Why must we be African

Until I grew to understand

I represent my fathers mother

Who passed when he was younger

I represent true African Americans

My parents derive from Congo

I on the other hand

Came from a thirteen colony

 

Yet my peers give me negativity

Saying I'm not American, I am

I was born in Connecticut raised

In Tennessee I'm a country girl

Poetry is my voice in a world

Were mute is me due to

My lack of hierarchy but

Knowledge I do not lack 

 

Knowledge was gained

Through these stanzas

I'm screaming in lowercase

Letters my truths about

Munyerenkana Namegabe

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Also unlimited its Poetry

I SAID! This is me