I left with a bag of dreams
and a heart full of hope.
The roads were wide
but none felt like home.
I spoke in borrowed voices
slept under unfamiliar skies.
Smiled through winters
that never thawed my bones.
But something kept pulling
a voice, a scent, a song.
A name I once answered to
still waiting where I belong.
Now I return, not empty
but carrying what I’ve become.
Not to start again
but to finally come home.
Coming back home on a repatriation flight
Overwhelmed by the shield and double masks blurring my sight
Making my way home to escape the blight
I could not wait to feel the warmth of my tropical sunlight
Never was I so happy as when we landed on the site
Glad to be home but on the plane we had to sit tight
Because quarantine forms had to be filled out right
And Covid-19 tests results had to be presented in black and white
Captain and hostesses were flexing their might
Keeping us in plane prison way into the night
Hating to wait I began to indite
Of how coming back home was such a huge plight
Making travel plans now no longer a delight
Everything now high-jacked in this pandemic fight
Seeing through showering mist-
Golden clouds sucking nectar
And slowly gliding away
Placing a kiss of confidence and poise
On the glossy cheeks of mountain dear
Before repatriation
Of the sun
With a wish
To see the offspring the next year.
All vegetation in apprehension
Of many season’s separation
Have withering begun,
Shedding frozen tears
From multitude leaf-eyes
Before the final adieu.
Birds from the distance horizon
Assembled to greet
In multitude hue and sound
At the return journey to north
Amidst tormenting bawl.
The sun at end of south journey
Leaves stealthily
Covered in the veil of multitude cloud.
"Let's share together my friend, the bread of life.
We are all slaves in this nice land.
Let's all work together for eternity,
till we earn, one by one
the ticket to return there, from that where we came...
To the country of liberty."
Copyright Constantinos Grigoriadis © All rights reserved