Immigrant 2

Photo: AFP

I am the outsider

the stranger

the invader.

 

I come because it is what I want.

I come because I have nowhere else.

I come because my desire has made me

a stranger in my parents' home.

 

I will never be as you,

but my children's children

will look back and yearn

for what was once our promise.

 

I will work, or not work,

- as you see fit,

lie and falsify, to fill 

the twisted forms you place 

before me, and when this journey

is finished, I will not know who 

I am, or where I have come from:

for this is your demand.

©Niall OConnor 2024