I am Elizabeth Smith

My father is a blacksmith

His father was a soldier in England

But picked up and moved to America

Edward Garrick does Father’s hair

He says it helps him look more professional

That way he’d get more customers

Recently Father has been at the shop more often

It seems he’s never around

He’s always making and fixing things for the strangers

We have a stranger in our home too

Mother says he helps people

But I don’t like him very much

He complains a lot

In fact, the other day

He told me I didn’t make his tea right

And Father made me give him my blanket

Because he wasn’t warm enough in his cot near the fire

He told me I was pretty once though

That he liked my hair when I wore it down

And he said my smile looked pretty

When he made a joke to me

And I laughed

But I don’t think he knew

That Father had told me to laugh at his jokes

Because they really weren’t very funny

They were mostly about how we were stupid

Well, he didn’t say it was us

But he was talking about Americans

And I am American

Mother has been in the kitchen a lot also

Because our stranger has friends over

They also get hungry

But I think they’re taking advantage of us

Because they eat a lot more than I ever have

I tried to speak to Mother about it once

But she said I was creating problems where there weren’t any

But I know inside

One does exist

If not many

But until the Strangers

Leave my once-peaceful home

I shall keep running

And I am Elizabeth Smith