Mirame a los ojos y dime de donde vengo
quienes son mis padres y cual es mi nombre
Lupita Maria, me dices, bella como tu madre
pero disculpame, como diablo se pronuncia
el apellido de tu padre? y cuando
abres la boca nadie te entiende
People look at me and ask
where do you come from?
and I know there will never be
a simple answer to that question
my face does not match
my name does not match
my voice does not match
it’s a trifecta of confusion
you must be Native American
I say I am of the tribe of New Jersey
But you don’t have an accent,
what exit? they smirk
105 and 109, I reply
with authority and pride
So where did Lupe come from?
It’s my mother’s name
Is she Mexican?
No, she is Ecuadorean
Oh, that explains it
the Incan connection
your English is so good
I’ve been speaking it since birth
but their eyes have glazed over
and they will never really know
who I am, and most importantly
where I come from
Lupita Eyde-Tucker is a bilingual poet and translator raised in New Jersey and Guayaquil, Ecuador. She is the winner of the 2021 Unbound Book Festival Emerging Poet Award, the 2019 Betty Gabehart Prize, and in 2018 was selected as an AWP Writer to Writer Mentee by poet Maggie Smith. In 2022 she was a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Prize from Letras Latinas. Lupita is completing an MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry at the University of Florida, and will be a staff scholar at Bread Loaf Translators Conference in June 2023. 
Not Enough Poetry 