CANTUS: N-400 Erasure Songs: 2 by Melissa Dunphy

This performance of Melissa Dunphy's "N-400 Erasure Songs: 2" was commissioned by Cantus and recorded LIVE in October 2021 as a part of Cantus touring program My Journey Yours.

From the composer:
"Erasure poetry is created by blacking out portions of pre-existing text to create a new work. Each of the poems in this cycle uses and reshapes text from the N-400, the application form that foreign-born "aliens" submit to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to be naturalized and become citizens of the United States."

----
Poetry by Laurel Chen
2. N-400 (an erasure)

i.
notice: any immigration
notice: hearing
notice: see
notice: you

ii.
to the immigrant :
homeland is
a process
delayed.

iii.
fingerprints disposable
a number unpermitted
immigrants: are
all of the above

iv.
about the United States:
do not

support
the criminal history

v.
you are what
you have
abandoned

vi.
identify: alien
copy: self


vii.
separate your
open wounds in the
process

viii.
verify:
all has
been destroyed

ix.
naturalization can not capture
your free
can not level
your personal
for political

x.
this application simplified
is persecution of
your own safety
to ensure social security

xi.
reschedule
reschedule
reschedule
reschedule
a time
time
time
again time
time
date and
time

xii.
resubmit
resubmit
resubmit

xiii.
please

xiv.
you will
never
belong

— Laurel Chen

----
linktr.ee/cantussings