I did not die in the country I was born in.
I died much, much later;
had my American ashes
scattered all over Bangladesh;
traversed it's many vessels of water.
I swam the Brahmaputra River,
floated upon the skin
of The Ganga; the half-naked
children waved and I couldn't tell
if they were saying hello
or goodbye; but those
waves spread until
I was far out into the sea.
I was forgotten
as swiftly as I was welcomed;
and was loved as easily
as was I avoided.
I looked back on my American
life with discontent. I saw nothing
but tangled knots of thought
laced with consumption,
and accumulation; self-interest
and seclusion; even
sadness was commodified.
The discontent was the push
and pull of a rope
tied to my soul.
I died before I ever left;
but discovered another self
on foreign soil
It wasn't till I had aged
beyond the average life
span for someone like
me in America; did I realize,
I wasted all this time,
dependent on what others
thought of me; what they
expected of me; and what
they considered was best for me.
I was forever exiled from darkness;
but at least I got a little sun
in Bangladesh.
May 8, 2016
May 8, 2016 at 2:40 AM UTC
I did not die in the country I was born in.
I died much, much later;
had my American ashes
scattered all over Bangladesh;
traversed it's many vessels of water.
I swam the Brahmaputra River,
floated upon the skin
of The Ganga; the half-naked
children waved and I couldn't tell
if they were saying hello
or goodbye; but those
waves spread until
I was far out into the sea.
I was forgotten
as swiftly as I was welcomed;
and was loved as easily
as was I avoided.
I looked back on my American
life with discontent. I saw nothing
but tangled knots of thought
laced with consumption,
and accumulation; self-interest
and seclusion; even
sadness was commodified.
The discontent was the push
and pull of a rope
tied to my soul.
I died before I ever left;
but discovered another self
on foreign soil
It wasn't till I had aged
beyond the average life
span for someone like
me in America; did I realize,
I wasted all this time,
dependent on what others
thought of me; what they
expected of me; and what
they considered was best for me.
I was forever exiled from darkness;
but at least I got a little sun
in Bangladesh.
