Dothead

"To the Hyphenated Poets" by Amit Majmudar (2012)

In this poem, Majmudar celebrates the state of being in between cultures or linking two cultures (for example, Indian and American) in one’s life and work. The message of the poem is instead of feeling divided or incomplete, people with multicultural roots should feel enriched and empowered by their hyphenated identity.

"T.S.A." by Amit Majmudar (2012)

T.S.A. refers to the Transportation Security Administration, an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security that has authority over the traveling public. People who staff security checkpoints at airports are T.S.A. officials. The poem describes the suspicion and confusion that “a young brown male” (Line 9) is likely to face in his encounters with T.S.A. agents.

"The Adventures of Amit Majmudar" by Amit Majmudar (2016)

The title of this poem alludes to Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Majmudar weaves well-known details from that classic American tale into his poem to emphasize differences between his experiences and those of Twain’s teenage characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. As a child of Indian immigrants, Amit felt that he could never be quite like those all-American boys, Huck and Tom.