: :
America

 

This time when I boarded the plane

to return to the US, I felt a peace with in,

a peace that had finally retuned to me

after twenty years.

 

This time, I didn't fly

on the wings of imaginations or dreams,

I flew on the wings of aluminum and steel,

 

that will finally take me home,

away from my home,

that no longer exists.

 

Would that make me a lesser daughter,

sister, friend, or a patriot,

if I'm not able to see the land below,

rising from the ground up in the air,

with my eyes filled with tears,

saltier than my Indian sea in deep blue?

 

Would that be unfair to say,

that my exile is a safe island,

still quivering in hope,

that I can't wait to dawn on

like an evening moon

to live through the nights?

 

Among hundreds of faces sitting in the plane,

I could easily identify the face of America,

and its smile served to me

like a warm blanket in my seat,

 

for me to peacefully fall asleep,

to migrate into my soul silently,

no longer in search of a land of opportunities but love,

that knows no boundaries of nations,

 

my ultimate destination!

© Kalpna Singh-Chitnis

 

(A poem on immigration aired on KPFK Radio, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara in 2014, but not published in any journal yet).