Foreigner

Garth Rakumakoe

I can be easily told apart

by the shiny sweat of my brow

toiling their gardens

-

My broken English

is what little I offer

to be heard

so as to feed my stomach

with what pittance I earn

 

Aware I am a question mark

to some, and an unwanted

to others, I have made peace

with indignity - for dignity

I cannot afford

 

My mother tongue

meets no familiar faces

My story is here

and nowhere -

I am a foreigner

far from home

Far, and in between

 

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Comments +

Comments3

  • sorenbarrett

    Treated as such only by the ignorant. We all belong to the same planet. I hear the alienation in this piece and it breaks my heart.

    • Garth Rakumakoe

      🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

    • Tony36

      Excellent write

      • Garth Rakumakoe

        Thank you Tony. 🙏🏼

        • Tony36

          You're welcome

        • Doggerel Dave

          Such a window into the experience of so many removed from their own language, culture and understandings with the added ‘bonus’ of sometime racism and contempt.
          You present great insight here.

          • Garth Rakumakoe

            Thank you, fellow writer. Very true what you said there.



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