
The mist carried with it songs of slumber.
Autumn leaves crunching under the weight of your new worries.
Desperate to seek remnants
of the homeland
in shoes you don’t fit anymore.
An old parable.
Two worlds colliding in summer.
Heatwaves calling the tropics weak.
In the horizon,
another feels the same.
You dive together,
same place, different time.
They rise to the surface and float on —
leaving you behind.
You are in the depths,
unable to articulate,
fighting the waves washing over you.
Your own critiques drown you:
“Everyone with dualities have been and are going through this.”
“No one wants to carve a space together unless the focus is always on them.”
“It is so common, beginning to dissect it is boring!”
“How many more people can pull this genre off?”
Why won’t the gatekeepers that are saying conflicted narratives
look in the mirror?
They are afraid to see
that they are who they have feared
to become.
Aren’t we worth more than…
belonging/not belonging?
Exhausted of
proving my validity.
Remembering to utter,
“Baka bukas.”
“Maybe tomorrow.”
It’s not that you don’t feel like you belong.
There are
complexities,
intricacies,
nuances,
that you want to pronounce.
“Baka bukas.”
It’s easier to muster.
Alyssa Powell-Ascura is the winner of this week’s writing competition. Enter the competition here: thearchipelago.org/weekly-writing
If you liked this poem and would like to help more writers like this publish their work, please consider supporting our writers and artists by becoming a member HERE.
Alyssa is an emerging multi hyphenated creative. Having grown up on Bundjalung country, somewhere by the coast in a place also known as Australia, has made her strive to live a mindful, healthy life, with a strong focus on healing as she navigates her identity within the diaspora. As a young artist and arts worker, Alyssa works across various mediums ranging from visual arts, writing, jewellery making, broadcasting, digital media, traditional mediums and recently, audio. She believes that community collaboration is key to creativity and aims to connect with like minded individuals.