In a blurry photo from my first trip to Poland at 19, me and my godmother, one of
my mother’s ten siblings, are laughing together, a thousand feet into the earth, in
a 13th century chapel made entirely of salt. Sculptures carved of rock salt, rock salt
chandeliers, a rock salt Last Supper.
In childhood, she was one of many names.
A voice on the phone. A formal exchange.
Table salt was made there from the upwelling brine. Upwelling the closest thing
resembling a wall in water.
*
I feared the door. Someone coming to take
my parents away.
Illegals—Taking American jobs—
In classroom debates about immigration,
I kept quiet.
*
Watching my godmother watch her grandchildren running the edges of the creek
I wanted to call a river. Slicing bugs from mushrooms picked before dawn.
Dropping the slivers quick into buckets. Asking when will I have children, and
haven’t I had enough school already, and how is it that we have so much debt in
America?
*
Shielded by whiteness,
assumed to be documented.
Threaten the economy—One out of every 12 newborns—
*
In another aunt’s kitchen, over rosehip tea, she said I wasn’t as spoiled as they’d expected,
for an amerykanka. I was proud, and devastated to be called American.
*
Providing an advantage to family members seeking to secure citizenship—
Silence both protected and betrayed.
*
At 22, running up a blur of pines, beyond my uncle’s turkeys and geese, to
where my mama grew up picking blueberries, I planted a little tree. Where
I’m invited to return.
*
The difference between a river and a creek is that
from a creek, no new branches are formed.
Anchor baby, n. Offensive
Patrycja Humienik, daughter of Polish immigrants, is a writer, editor, and MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her poems and essays can be found in Gulf Coast, 128 Lit, The Adroit Journal, Hayden’s Ferry Review, TriQuarterly, Poetry Daily, The Slowdown show, and elsewhere. Her first book is forthcoming with Tin House in 2025.
Hypertext Magazine and Studio (HMS) publishes original, brave, and striking narratives of historically marginalized, emerging, and established writers online and in print. HMS empowers Chicago-area adults by teaching writing workshops that spark curiosity, empower creative expression, and promote self-advocacy. By welcoming a diversity of voices and communities, HMS celebrates the transformative power of story and inclusion.
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