Home – Sujata Venugopal


My friend and I were talking the other day-
Of our lives that took us down different paths and different ways.
In the land of our birth, she had chosen to stay,
While I had moved, travelled, and settled in a land far away.

 

My friend and I were talking the other day-
Laughing, teasing, reminiscing, and having our say.
She asked-if this land I settled in and called home-was really so?
I paused, thought a while, and said, “I don’t really know.


“Surely you know”, said my friend, as we talked the other day-
Pondering her question, I found myself hesitatingly say,
“I live in a land that welcomed me and mine, as its’ very own
Yet despite this, despite all we enjoy here, does my heart say, “this is home?”


“Land of birth not your home? Asked my friend as we talked the other day
I struggled to answer, to acknowledge where my heart truly lay.
My family, our home, my many friends-all settled and here to stay.
I tell myself “Surely this is home how can it be any other way.”


“So where is home?” my friend asks again, as we talked the other day.
Well, “home is where the heart is, “I finally hear myself say.
“There or here-where is your heart?” she wants to know.
“Where life began,” I say, “and where lives of me and mine -now flow and grow.”


My friend and I were talking the other day-
As we laughed, teased and talked, she pressed me, to more clearly say,
Again, I pause, think and try to resolve a question I never thought to ask myself,
Well-the land of birth and the land of choice, are HOME for now and ever more,
I firmly say.