Megatron

My little sister is 18 years younger than me.

And before she was born

My mother said I could name her.

Google says Amelia,

My grandmother says Rosita.

But I know this little girl needs the name of a conqueror.

"Mom,

Her name’s gonna be

Megatron."

Mother security council vetoes.

She asks me why I can't name the kid something normal.

As if there was anything normal of our family.

Made of journey and deception.

We too are Transformers,

Crossing borders for survival,

It’s very obvious we don’t belong here

No matter the form we adapt to.

I wish I could tell her:

To survive in America you have to have cannons for hands.

 You have to be prepared for abandonment

 at the bottom of an ocean.

Did you see how they caged him?

Let this child know she'll be a villain.

That this country will crave her head.

Mom,

We are aliens in this foreign nation.

Even this robot from space had to change his name

to slide off a Western tongue.

Did you see how he was hunted?

In every narrative he is a monster--

Why do we blame him so much for surviving?

Mom,

They already label us invaders.

Optimus was red, white, and blue

And they branded him enemy,

Turned their weapons on the Autobots,

We’re dark skin

And big lips

Look at how they balance their trade

Against Mexico.

This country has allies

But we are expendable.

They’ll break us into shrapnel.

Use our bodies to build their bridges,

We shouldn’t dare dream

Of anything better.

Do not give her a false sense of security.

America is not hesitant about casualties.

Mom,

Let this little girl

be brute strength and strategy.

Let's watch her tear down their walls and their towers.

Let them taste fear on their tongue

When they say

Her         name.

I’d rather she be terror than tragedy.

There is no room for selflessness when you are surviving,

Right?

My sister is born on October 6th.

It is not hard to imagine that

she’ll be steel gaze and iron backbone.

She’s already dimples and demands,

A one year cacophony,

Triumph and trouble on two legs,

This little girl takes shit from no one.

First name: Armani,

Because my mother doesn’t understand metaphors.

Last name: Roman.

Because who better to know about conquering.

Her middle name is only one letter.

M.

For Megatron. For Mexican.

For More than meets the eye.

I'll teach her to read this poem,

When she's a little bit older.