I Long To Be On the Mainland

I long to be on the mainland, I’ve trekked waters freezing, I’ve traversed oceans rough. I long to be on a mainland, I’ve seen rocks jutting and jagged, I’ve heard men howl into the night-time surf. I long to be on your mainland, I fled from bombs, blasts and waves, I escaped whirlpools of fear. I long to return to my mainland, to kiss my wife as saltwater laps the sunset shore, holding hands with my son as shells sing their seabed verse. I long to belong. To no longer be an island floating, a jetsam migrant adrift and at sea - whom you might view from afar on a screen shrouded in flashes - but whom you don’t truly see.