Have you ever lived out
like away from your parents, your town, your city,
your country
away from everything familiar..
Have you felt that sense of new beginnings
the feeling of setting up a new room, a new
apartment, a new house, a new home..
Making new acquaintances, the middle aged grocery
man downstairs, the food delivery guy from the
cafeteria down the street, the guy who brings
drinking water in gallons every Monday,
the mothers who wait for the school buses every
morning with their seven eight years old, the
security guys at the entrance who spend
uncountable hours keeping their eyes open to keep
the neighborhood safe,
All these people that I see,
they also left their piece of familiarity, far away,
somewhere in their beautiful forgotten countries.
And together we carry this new, unfamiliar sense of
identity, that we are a no-one here,
which is comforting, strangely enough.
No need to show the neighbors who got a more
expensive Television set, or who upgraded to a more
expensive car, or who bought another new flat in a
posh locality.
No relatives to nose in the daily lives.
This sense of being a no one feels safe.
No one to judge.
The old home, back in town, with all the familiar
families doesn’t feel the same anymore.
There was that gnawing mess which was toxic then
and is toxic now,
people having unrealistic expectations,
your old self still lingering there with its meaningless
insecurities.
Do I call that familiarity home even if it’s comfortable,
Or do I look ahead into the unknown, the
uncomfortable, and build a space for me there, a safe one, and call it my home?
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