Quote: "“They have no idea what it is like to lose home at the risk of never finding home again, have your entire life split between two lands and become the bridge between two countries.” –unknown
Amidst the whispers of the waves, I sail,
An expatriate adrift in memories pale.
Through years that roll like distant tides,
I've seen the changes, where once I bide.
In lands where mango, guava, and berry trees stood,
Now swallowed by progress, misunderstood.
Housing estates rise, devouring my past,
Soccer fields and cricket grounds, memories amassed.
No familiar faces in this foreign expanse,
Lost in the crowd, a solitary dance.
Relatives meet, but the gap's too wide,
They see the changes, the scars I hide.
I yearn for the homeland, under azure skies,
Where verdant bushes once met my eyes.
But alas, it's but a dream, a wistful sigh,
My voyage home, forever in the sky.
Yet in the heart's compass, the longing persists,
For the land of my roots, where memories exist.
Though oceans apart, in dreams, I roam,
A voyage to homeland, a whispered poem.
International Airport
This nowhere, a contrived freedom
expatriate as air,
demonstrates our mastery
of what we meet or leave behind.
Each precise beginning
finds an ending imprecise,
as we fly to where or whom we wish
only to find them somehow less.
The conquered distance
returns within ourselves
as all that's joined grows relative
becomes a nowhere too.
Until the town seems smaller
the loving eyes less absolute.
inferno! raze all over
fire, fire everywhere
not a while living in fair
leaders unity jabber
refugee gets destroyer
-December 06, 2018 Chattogram
I scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
I scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
...inspired by 'With a Photograph to Zell'
by Hart Crane.
We scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
confidantes, a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
I scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
EXPATRIATE…
(Apropos Soon Come)
Heard the chichi budo singing
in the banana walk; heard
the burro braying; and
the mongoose roaming the coop;
smelled the aroma of roast breadfruit,
ackee and salt fish; and
felt the icy cold air tease
the warmness of my body.
Then came the off-beat
pitter patter of raindrops falling
on the roof top, drowning away the dream:
washing me back to the shore of this distant reality.
Self imposed exile rivals
only that of being a refugee;
the thought eased by employment
of the more dignified term---expatriate.
Mocking Odysseus, we wander
the haphazard journey; sadly seeking
stolen ways back to the womb of our beginnings.
Digging deep down into the sacred screaming soul
of myself, I pray and implore almighty Jah---
mek mi not become a of Sisyphus:
Jesus, mi’a crave ‘ome.
I scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
We scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
America should have a society of peace,
Of handsome peace,
And a land of exuberant compassion
Where the dusk
Is a breast pocket handkerchief
Of ebony and yellow,
And not this land that is death’s grin.
America should have a land of opportunity,
Of infinite opportunities
Accompanied with sound wages
Prolific as Father Time,
And not this land where blotted bones reside
Oh, America should have a land of respect,
Of love and peace and compassion and honor,
And not this land where respect is sin.
Hark! Sweet expatriation
Hark! Sweet expatriation
...inspired by 'With a Photograph to Zell' by Hart Crane
We scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
we simmer in a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
...inspired by 'With a Photograph to Zell'
by Hart Crane.
We scan the skies as vapor sails,
made wide by distance, destinations
guessed at, criss-cross trails
of global peregrinations;
two of thousands flying high
'til touchdown, from a roaring to a sigh.
Time and separation matter not,
our spirits meld where'er we land,
cities mysterious and grand,
confidantes, a melting pot.
In early years we settled down,
Republic versus Queen and Crown,
three thousand miles, an ocean's span
of redefining can't and can.
An innocent, so far abroad,
an interstitial, like a fraud,
forever seeks the real me
while clinging to your constancy;
expatriate, with memories of
England dear, the land I love.
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