A Book About Her

© 2024, Photograph taken by Sharif Fahim. The conejo (bunny) she received from her mother.

A stuffed bunny plushy.
My mother has repeatedly expressed to my siblings and I about how much this little conejo meant to her. That she wouldn’t leave it out of her sight for a second. How she slept with it till adulthood. How through several moves, school transfers, flights, and every other bump in the road it was with her. She thinks it was probably because of the isolation that came with her immigration. Growing up in a country that didn’t care to accept her with open arms. The fear of speaking because she did not want others to know she wasn’t “American enough”.
She cant remember much about the day she arrived in the United States but the fear, the moment she got her new best friend, and a question.
“¿Es un conejo de verdad?”