A Migrant's Hymn

I reside in your fleeting breath

which escape between your chants, unsaid.

Just repeated silently: mantra meditations (to protect me).

Ma, your closed eyes

flicker when images of your only son wave by

like the reflections in the sacred well,

you stared down into when young

thinking it to be your doppelgänger

from a parallel life, sent to watch over you

like you to me,

‘till that morning the reservoir ran dry.

-

A mother's smile was soon replaced

by prayers to the divine

as I flew across oceans to conquer lands

that had once conquered us; perhaps they still do

for where is the freedom in wealth

if you’re always in pursuit.

An isolated life in snow withers me,

freezing dirt under my nails,

a mixing of soils

a managing of smells

a losing of taste buds, they no longer flower

in the absence of a mother tongue

olfactory memories turn rare

leaving me, leaving me to seek refuge in your warm breath

freed as devout chants to the Universe -

As I too begin to pray, for the day your smile returns

and ripples in our reunion.