If I Could Leave...

if I could leave the country today, I'd go to where people smile at their misfortune.

To where the doors stays open for the beggar and the thief,

the paper man or the bread man,

To where they wake before sunrise, sweep your sins into heaven

and commence the days work.

I'd go to where people listen to announcements.

To where tea and coffee is warmed over wood fire.

To where the updates are brought by the birds, the wind, the sky,

the stories of people simply stopping by to take a rest, before they

take off to whatever servitude they must attend to.

I'd go to where daughters live with their grandmothers and

sons go to work with their fathers.

To where men drop what they are holding to help push a car,

To where children sit on laps of strangers when the bus is too packed,

To where everyone grows old with war, and young with resilience.

If i could leave the country today, i'd leave to where women are modest and trust their men,

To where men are honest and trust their women.

I'd go to where the contradictions of society are unknown to me,

so that i can feel

like i left somewhere

and arrived somewhere new,

just like that day i barely remember

where we left home to come to Canada.

Or that other day I barely remember,

the day I was born.