Mr Unknown Poem by Raj Arumugam

See this Mr Unknown
he walks hard
is comfortable in himself
but in our eyes only a phantom


See him emerge from his unit
go down the stairs (the ceilings cleaned of cobwebs)
and he puts his hand in the mail box.
See this Mr Unknown
you look at with your elbows on your window sills
walking down the pavement toward the station.
See this strange Mr Unknown
suddenly appear before you in the atrium
and a faint smile appears on his lips
and a fainter one in yours as you recognise each other
looking into each other's opaque worlds through glass.
See Mr Unknown get into a train
and disappear into a world of his own
and see him late at night
returning in the dim light
as you peer over your windows
because you heard the crack of a twig.
Mr Unknown
retires into his dark unit.





(from The Migrant - notes of a newcomer (February 1997- July 1998))