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| 19/08/1990 |
| COMING HOME |
On returning home after spending nine years in Abu Dhabi, 19 August 1990.
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Expatriates are a hybrid breed,
born out of national wedlock, the seed
of two societies coupling, the need
of one satisfied by the other’s greed.
Mixed lineage confused loyalties spawn.
To which community does an expatriate belong?
Does he embrace his country, right or wrong,
Or abjure it for however long
He thinks it takes to sprout new shoots,
Without having to transplant old roots.
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Expatriates are a hybrid breed,
born out of national wedlock, the seed
of two societies coupling, the need
of one satisfied by the other’s greed.
Mixed lineage confused loyalties spawn.
To which community does an expatriate belong?
Does he embrace his country, right or wrong,
Or abjure it for however long
He thinks it takes to sprout new shoots,
Without having to transplant old roots.
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His years of exile are time-served
as punishment he never deserved
For crimes he never committed.
His guilt lay in being ill-fitted
To cope with the hardships of life at home.
Water, electricity, telephone, every amenity
Seems to function abroad automatically.
No wonder every expatriate elects
To vote with his feet and selects
A foster government as surrogate parent.
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And after years have been spent
In comfortable servitude, an uneasy discontent
Nags him into reconsidering his aims.
Do the dirhams, riyals or monetary gains
justify remaining abroad? Indolence overrides
his qualms. He stays, till someone else decides.
It is too late then to return the gold
For which his prime years he sold.
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Published in DAWN, 25 August 1990. |
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| 19 August 1990 |
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| All Poems |
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