The Nowhere Man

There was a time I lived in an old world over there,

Told people "I am from here" and knew no elsewhere

Then adventure called and I left my town and folks

I flew over mountains, oceans and forests of oaks

I traveled to a foreign land, saw cities of abundance

I met new people and soaked in their exuberance

I cast off my allegiance to the old world as time flew

Embraced the new world along with the old, and now ...

When I am there, I want to leave and come back here

And when here, I want to be there in days very near!

Here I ride fast routes thru hills and scenic desert

There I trod dusty paths into short bushes and dirt

There, exposed to the raw elements, I feel vulnerable

Here, safe in a cozy sterile cocoon, it is rather dull

The abundance of humanity there can be suffocating

The loneliness of here feels heavy and daunting

Here, I feel like a bird, free to learn and explore,

There, I push and pull in the web of relations galore

Here, I am on the move, eager and ready to tear

There, I am like a turtle - in no hurry to go anywhere

I miss the riot of sounds, colors, smells, when here

Out there, I long for peace and clean odorless air

Here, no one bothers me, I'm servant and the boss

There, hemmed in from all sides, privacy goes for a toss

There I enjoy the unruliness and chaos of a wise culture

Here I thrive in a new world of precision and structure

Do I belong here? There? Am I now a no-where man?

No! I am happily blessed to be a now-here man!

Abhay B. Joshi

Poet’s note: This poem describes the emotional tug of war felt by an immigrant. I migrated from a traditional eastern society to a modern western one. The “there” in the poem refers to my old eastern roots and “here” refers to my new adopted land.