Where I Am From
City lights, cars, buses,
Skyscrapers, restaurants, movie theaters
This isn’t where I came from
But where I came to
Let’s take a 24 hour trip halfway around the world.
Step down and take a look at:
The red dirt road, the green majestic rice fields,
And mountains that sleep beneath the cyan sky
Welcome to the countryside
Where my sweet childhood memories refuge
I remember-
The hot sun whipping on Grandma’s back
As she harvest the rice field
The crimson on the young men’s face
Fixing broken roofs
And the cordial smile of a neighbor offering
Sweet rice cake .
I can never forget-
Those breezy afternoons which I lay on a hammock
Listening to Mom’s lullabies.
Those early mornings, which I was woken up
By the call of the roosters as the moon still hang overhead
And those long nights of festivals,
Which we played hide and seek
The taste of -
Coconuts, jackfruits, mangoes, papayas
Still lingers its sweetness from yesteryears.
This is the place which I
Caught frogs down the stream,
Walked miles to school
And harvest the rice fields,
While dreaming what life’s like-
In America.