Unearthed

Waiting for this train to stop

Has been the road I’ve been on

When I moved to the other side of the world

When I moved down and under

From the up and over

And everything is backwards

As I walk down the street

It’s like I don’t exist

With every shoulder hit

With every three abreast

With every unanswered ‘hello’

With every unacknowledged nod

And now it’s permanent.

A resident of a Land I do not feel at home in.

And yet, there is some unearthed joy rising in me.

As this train has finally arrived

And I’ve landed at my destination,

The same place I started,

But everything is different.

Somehow anger and frustration have dissipated now that we are the same.

Now that I am recognized by this government

After they counted my countless papers

And thousands of dollars later

I have received a piece of paper

I have become one of them

No longer a stranger

A sibling, a neighbor.

And perhaps their cold exteriors in this hot country has something to do with their expulsion

of every immigrant and native alike

Making everyone feel unearthed

Searching for a home that no longer exists.

Maybe I am invited into the searching and the longing for a home that doesn’t exist

Yet

An ethereal place

Heaven

Eden

Nirvana

To chip away at the marble

The cold exterior of this red earth

To find the masterpiece just beneath

Maybe by chipping away at this surface I might find the masterpiece in me

Heaven

Eden

Nirvana

That has been waiting in me.

And it took coming from the up and over

To the down and under

Waiting on a train that wouldn’t stop

To be turned on my head

And shaken from my feet down

To unearth whatever this is

in me

In us

As permanent residents on this red dust.