"In A Different World" By Najib Abbi

In a different world,

I can remember the face,

the voice,

and the poetry of my great grandfather,

there’s enough rice for everyone,

and my mother yells at me for trailing sand home from the beach,

In a different world,

my siblings and I inherit the rivers our father told us of in legend,

and we swim with our cousins,

as he once swam with his,

In a different world,

I roam the same streets my mother used to as a child,

and our neighbors say I’m almost as troublesome as she was,

and we laugh,

In a different world,

all our children speak their language,

we never need for anything or anyone outside our walls,

we don’t trudge through deserts or get lost at sea seeking asylum,

nobody loses their life trying to find refuge,

and we don’t feel the need to leave,

In a different world,

we have home.