Here, there, nowhere
Author: Anna Klepaczek
Student
Childhood
The smell
in the kitchen, light passing through the window, children screaming outside.
Mother’s apron, father’s
jacket, my beaten up toys
Concrete matchbox jungle;
buildings interspersed with an occasional fossil of the past; an architectural
paradox.
Kiosks and
booths and the smell of farmers’ food, the worn hands of the shopkeeper, the
unbearable stench of diesel.
Dust and
dirt and grime, in my hair, on my hands, under my fingernails.
Move
Black emotionless night, dark
and wet cobblestone, doors slamming, tears spilled
The East, the past is
defined, the future riding on train tracks, and the beginning of neon lights, Coca
Cola signs,
The West.
Longing
A modern life with modern
devices,
A battery-operated
world, the plastic world.
Running not walking,
stressing not thinking, frustrated and not wondering,
I don’t know you; you don’t
know me. It’s better like this, why
bother? I’m too busy, you’re too busy, I
pretend I care and so do you, but in the end we’re both modern liars.
I wake with sleep in my eyes,
try my best to rub them, but it never leaves me.
I walk the streets, smile and grin like
required, collect my pay, spend it, go into debt. I want to, so badly, to enjoy all of this,
and the years that pass are filled with effort.
And yet it has never been
mine, I have never been a part of it…I pretend to enjoy, fake a smile, but gasp
for air like a fish out of water, for all this never belonged to me.