The Exiled Child Looks Back
Rent from DeepDyve- The Exiled Child Looks Back
Meaning every town I ever lived in.Meaning every ghost village I walked out of.
Meaning the palpable air and weatherin the village I had to leave behind.
Meaning the history of the world I grew through.The childhood bomb shelters. The summer
the city was burned for the colour of protest.Meaning the military tanks on my front yard—
and this is literal. I touched the tankswith my own hands, on my forced walk to the school bus.
Meaning the history of the worldI was required to move away from.
Meaning the school buildings that emptiedtheir glossy halls of my name, not even echoed.
Meaning moving for the sake of a parent's job or a life.Meaning leaving everything I had been [End Page 108]
and everything I was becoming. Meaninggrowing into work that became being paid for doing a job you hated.
Meaning made meager by circumstanceuntil circumstance became meaning.
Meaning every world I moved from and moved fromand no girl ever cried for my leaving. [End Page 109]
Nicholas Samaras is the author of Hands of the Saddlemaker and American Psalm, World Psalm. He is the poetry editor of the Adirondack Review.
