"the traveller"
for i am only a traveller finding my way among the streets of your new town, i have other places to go to. i shall someday work out a map of this city and traverse it on foot, someday. for i am only a traveller, and cannot stay longer where there is no home. take my love while you can, take my hatred, take my weathered hand if you will, for i shall have no home here, among the dull buildings where the heart cannot stay. for i am only a traveller on my way, to somewhere further than here. this is the city that broke my heart, that stole my feelings from me; this is the city that took away my love, that told me i must go away. i must go somewhere. somewhere, where they can know me; can recognise that i am a man. some night when the city is asleep i’ll walk out quietly along your cruel streets through the suburban edge and into the dawn forests. somewhere, perhaps near where the sun rises, i can sit down, and sometimes perhaps, i can tell myself, here i am a man. ~Muhammad Haji Salleh~ Mu