Looking Back Now  
By Amal Abu-Bakare 

Looking back now.
I see what they saw
A girl who looked different and didn’t belong,
Arriving and deciding that this was her place
With a smile so cocky placed upon her face.
Maybe that’s what those people saw.
Another immigrant, so unCanadian, so flawed.
But they didn’t know, and they couldn’t see.
I wasn’t some outsider,
I was me.
Looking back now
I see what I saw
A new community, of which I wanted to belong.
But, some people wouldn’t accept me.
They wanted something else,
What was wrong with me, I sometimes asked myself.
Maybe that was why, I saw what I saw,
When I looked in the mirror, and why I felt so small
But I didn’t know, and I couldn’t see
That I was special
Because I was me.
But when I met the right people, when I went to the right places
I found people who greeted me with smiles on their faces.
True Canadians that didn’t judge, true Canadians who were kind,
True Canadians who had more than colour on their minds.
True Canadians who knew right from wrong,
True Canadians that knew everyone belongs.
That colour doesn’t matter, and that racism makes no sense.
These Canadians were the people who gave me self-confidence.
And it’s because of them, I can look back now
And see what both I and those who judged me
Should have seen somehow.
That singling out people is just plain wrong.
That we’re all different, that we all belong.
And that maybe one day, if everyone could see
The same way those true Canadians saw me.
Canada would be better, and soon the world would be too.
Because I am me and you are you.