Ways Of Belonging Poem by Sofiul Azam

for Homi K. Bhabha

Sometimes I can't decide wherever on this planet
my feet belong, for they love to wander free -
instead of an incorrigible destiny on a place. Yes,

mystery's all that mysterious as I listen to you
people talk about ways of belonging like that
of a tree rooted in a patch of earth and for hours

drone on about the inevitable, onward march
that none of you ever gets weary of, strutting
your stuff when it's progress horizontally defined.

What if nothing of this sort holds true in the end,
for even someone groovy in a lonesome attic
and somehow contrived to get past the physical

travels miles and plants himself omnipresent
on the pathways he has of belonging, untouched
by any mark of shadiness or sleaze, staving

off the worst of it all for those coming next?


from IN LOVE WITH A GORGON (2010)