Written piece
The Home I Imagined
Maryam Butt
Pakistan
About this piece
This poem describes home (refer: country) in a perspective imagined for what it seemed - how the familial ties, what constructs them, and the taste of culture end up creating a picture that doesn't reflect what was imagined.
home / i imagined it green, white, and sweet
bodies were once bruised, torn, buried
do you mistake sacrifice as a calm ocean
it’s not water, it’s blood, salty & passionate
this land has tasted revolution twice
a hand in hand in hand, three generations
dragged out, hurt, left to die / it’s home
i open my mouth & words smell
like slavery, a bit worn out
I write in their language, they
read in their mother tongue
i follow the ritual of my grandfather
a man who inhaled the colonial air
the clock turns morning & i
mix water, milk and sugar,
put two tablespoons of tea in it
sip sip, it’s chai o’clock
breathe in & breathe out - the sound of
a bat hitting a pristine white ball
visuals of the Ashes playing stacked
in our family tree / my father recalling
the number of wickets needed to
win the 1992 world cup final
since when cricket became family time?
home / i dreamed of it as taboo-free
a daughter not just for marriage
my mother adding a pinch of
tears in the soup of misery, culture, religion
her husband brings home a pack of
tradition & some unhinged customs
when twenty hit i understood
home was never what i imagined
green, white, and sweet