The Vow Unspoken

[Verse 1]
The Form I-485 sits cold in my hands.
October, 2015, the clock hand stuck on two.
The vinyl chair is cracked like parched Ghanaian land,
And I'm carrying the accent of a world you never knew.
I practice my politeness in the fluorescent haze,
A garment woven tight for these official days.

[Chorus]
And I smiled for you, a perfect threadbare seam,
But the vow unspoken was my own quiet scream.
Yeah, I smiled for you, played the part you wrote,
While a different anthem was rising in my throat.

[Verse 2]
The man behind the glass, he looked right through my file.
He said, 'Honey, is that last name woven or just spelled?'
And for a second there, I almost lost the style,
The careful, steady pattern my mother's mother held.
I felt the heat behind my eyes, the bitter taste of salt,
And placed my future's weight inside a concrete vault.

[Chorus]
And I smiled for you, a perfect threadbare seam,
But the vow unspoken was my own quiet scream.
Yeah, I smiled for you, played the part you wrote,
While a different anthem was rising in my throat.

[Bridge]
To hold the hope of Peckham in a Queens waiting room,
To translate my father's pride, and bleach it of its bloom.
That was the work. The silent, heavy lift.

(Music cuts out completely for 4 seconds of silence)

[Outro]
Me din de Whitney.
(The beat returns, sparse and driving)
Yeah. My name is Whitney.