To the Rented Alley

 

People say we become wiser when we live outside the simple and familiar milieu where we grow up. That I agree but there is a feeling of unbelongingness in this land, where I have taken my shelter. Too noisy, too garish I feel about the place and it is unfortunate, when I feel it is out of sheer necessity that I have to stay away from home. Okay, please pass me that book on The Art of Living in the Present while Planning for the Future and Globetrotting.

With so many dreams, so many aspirations, many of our folks come to this part of this world; a lot of them also live in a particular village of the city where I stay. It struck me that there are so many people I come across every day, every night. It is funny when you don’t know their name, what they do, and anything but can recognise their face which you see daily. You start imagining they are birds, that they are the hazy surreal shades you see in your dreams. But in this verse, I saw all of us as one: a flock that has been chased away from home by the bullets and bombs, the bloods and outlawry, and the unreal famine of our land. 

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Flock together, yet separate we are
In these alien wires of different made
And us, belonging to different backgrounds
Of lilac, yellow, maroon, green, pink, of different shades

In a familiar wire, I had taken shelter
Imagining freedom
Imagining the white ibises
Imagining the meaningfulness

We plume ourselves of where we come from
Forbidden it is, withal we long for our nests
Ever fly back to our roots where we long
Where we long to get back those azure skies that have turned crimson

But those colours of vehemence
Those colours of dissonance
Those colours of despair
Drove us away in droves

And here, every day I saw the heaps of my stock
Laughing and crying, some droves drift and pass me by
I know some droves see me, see me giggling too
And we know, we know nothing of some droves too

In this strange place, we dream
We dream of essence
And fly to feel the breeze of essence
As if life, we are living a life of essence

Over again, a thousand lines I may fly
A thousand views I may enjoy
A thousand extraneous worms I may eat
But our homes are truly where the hearts are.