We wanted to ask you to share your Canadian Immigration experience. After reading this piece from the Iranian Canadian Poet, Nilofar Shidmer, we are curious about your immigration experience. If you would like to share your story with us, please send with a bio and content image to  kqxmedia@gmail.com. There is no word limit. 

 

      

Without English

Robert Dziekanski died on the day ‎

of his landing ‎in Vancouver, ‎

as an immigrant, just because

he could not communicate in the language ‎

that, after fifteen years, ‎animates

my Iranian tongue, without thinking.‎

 

But what caught my eye, ‎

watching the scene on The National, ‎

were his legs,‎ soundlessly ‎ quivering

on the white floor. ‎

 

I imagine his mother‎’‎s eyes glued ‎‏

to customs doors‎, ‎opening and closing ‎‏

each time somebody ‎‏‎passed through‎.‎‏

Meanwhile her son‎,‎ trapped

behind the doors‎, ‎wandered through signs

‎incomprehensible like‏‎ strangers

who could not show him ‎

his way out‎.‎

 

It was when he started‎ shouting

his frustration at a computer

in a language different than ‎

the one on the screens —‎

a tongue that none of the three  ‎

police officers could understand. ‎

 

Neither could read the hands

Robert later half-raised ‎

before attempting to turn around ‎

away from the pointed Tasers.‎

 

Without English, Dziekanski also could not

read ‎the unbending sentence ‎

sent through his body.‎

 

Poem by  Nilofar Shidmehr