The Mountain

Come and help me remember my country,

A land in memory

My home long ago

Surrounded by the sea

With jagged low mountains and rivers

With thundering cliffs and muddy shores.

I want to sing for my home in my heart

Here in the hills of Berkshire

Shrouded in morning dew

And lullabies as the night climbs up its sides.

I want to hear you sing along

For I want to hear your words

Your heart beat

For I’m new here.

I don’t find words equivalent to the old nuances in my memory

In this new land

My crumbled memory casts shadows of reshaped images

And it’s foreign to me.

Come and sing with me

For I need friends

Telling me that the difference in time and distance

Is only in metrics, not in humanity.

2018

Year of the Dog