Where are you from?
A question I'm asked frequently
Yet a simple answer I cannot give
I was born in one country
That no longer exists

Yet the second country
Wasn't yet formed
When I left
So
Where am I from?

The explanation I must give
Every
Single
Time
Is the same

I was born in the
Former Soviet Union
But now it's Belarus

Yet I feel no connection
To the Belarusian flag
Because I came from the
USSR
That fell apart in 1991
While we left in 1989

Though I speak Russian
As my first language
I am in no way
Connected to Russia

Russian was the primary language
In the USSR
So countries like
Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, so forth
Though having their own dialects
Were not used until they became
Their own republics in the
Post Soviet era

Belarus is the country
Of my origin
But the USSR
Is the country
Of my birth

And the explanation will never
Be simple
Perhaps I will never have a
Singular identity

So tell me, where am I from?