Born in Cupertino
This poem explores the diverse voices of Cupertino, weaving together the stories of its residents. Through lyrical observation, it captures the city’s rhythms and contrasts, celebrating community, memory and the power of language to unite and give voice to the overlooked.
Beneath the hills where tech and root entwine,
A stranger once, I’ve made your language mine.
I’ve walked your parks, your markets, every street,
And let the city’s rhythm guide my feet.
I do not write for echoes in the air,
But for the ones whose voices rise from care,
From Indian grandmothers with songs of spice,
To Latino youths whose words cut clean as ice.
I stitch their speech in sonnets, sharp and clear,
So Cupertino can at last draw near,
To all its selves—its future and its past,
In lines that hold what fleeting moments last.
I do not speak alone, but through the crowd,
The soft, the loud, the humble and the proud.
Not just to dazzle, no, but to unite,
To make Cupertino's soul take flight.
Thomas Célérier June 2025