Building a Home After Exile |
Collins C. Opareaocha
Begin with absence.
Lay it carefully
The location for the foundation.
Gather fragments:
one mother's proverb,
two handfuls of memories of rain,
under the shadow of a mango tree,
the music of your old street
pronouncing your name.
Mix thoroughly.
When loneliness arrives,
offer it a chair.
It will persist for longer than anticipated.
Hang your losses by the window.
Have them familiarize themselves with the local light.
Plant something.
Anything.
Watch how roots work out their negotiation
with foreign soil
without surrendering themselves.
Invite neighbours.
Share stories
Until the walls start breathing.
On difficult nights,
listen closely.
You can hear the distant rivers
which circulates in your blood,
He was looking for the sea to him, still.
Do not mistake this
for a return desire.
Some journeys
transform return
into a new type of moving away.
At last,
open the door.
If memory enters,
welcome it.
If hope enters,
welcome it.
If neither comes,
remain patient.
A home is not built
from certainty.
It is built
From the firm resolve
to belong
while becoming.
Collins C. Opareaocha is a writer and poet. He lives and writes in Turkey. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Empyrean literary magazine, Abstract Magazine, Dualiterary Magazine, Academy of Heart. Pretzel Bites Literary, The Leafline Magazine and elsewhere.