UNFAMILIAR

Heels on cobblestones
Leading the rhythm of the night-time flair
Map on one hand ready for the unknown
While whiff of spices float about in the air
My tired eyes can’t help but stare
Ready to take a bite
Of the streets and the sights
Drawn by the red lanterns and lights
Make enticing the unfamiliar

Buskers about, singing their hearts out
Heart’s awake from the sound of the beat
Of an old city refusing to sleep
Throng of souls crowd every inch of the sidewalk
Hearing every single one of them talk
Feeling alive and alone at the same time
Relieved that I am seeing the world
While I am out here - invisible
Amused at how the world seems to be blind
They are not seeing the unfamiliar

A taste of spice and sweet in between
A mix of everything to be touched and be seen
Everything to come and whatever has been
I run towards all of it
Breathing every inch of it
Louder, bigger, and stronger it all gets
I taste, and touch, and see it all
So this is what it means to live life to the fullest
I am bravest
With the unfamiliar

Sweet Poison filling me up now
Tasting the fruit and the hop that somehow
Made my night bittersweet
To0 eager to see the world with the eyes of the broken
Or say things without sieving thoughts
From a mouth that has rarely spoken
Of things that is familiar
Like love, hopes, dreams, and pain
Everything can be said to the unfamiliar

Now that I am here, let me rewind a step or two
The unfamiliar and familiar
I don’t know which is true
One tiring my heart from the so many asks
The other giving an illusion of grandeur
Using joy as a mask
I do know now that after all this I want to be
Where my familiar is
Where the ME can be me
Because in all the unfamiliar, true and untrue
I want my familiar back
I want to go home to you

*Written in Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur while
missing my husband and feeling guilty I am having fun without him.
I wanted for him to be with me but he had other plans. 2:29AM.

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