Blog #1

Front Door
by Imtiaz Dharker

Wherever I have lived,
walking out of the front door
every morning
means crossing over
to a foreign country.

One language inside the house,
another out.
The food and clothes
and customs change.
The fingers on my hand turn
into forks.

I call it adaptation
when my tongue switches
from one grammar to another,
but the truth is I’m addicted now,
high on the rush
of daily displacement,
speeding to a different time zone,
heading into altered weather,
landing as another person.

Don’t think, I haven’t noticed
you’re on the same trip too.

This poem explores emotions such as displacement and transformation. We often view change as a bad outcome because we are fearful of what will happen. We are afraid because change is a constant cycle that is full of unexpected events and we don’t know what will occur. Dharker states, “speeding to a different time zone, heading into altered weather, landing as another person.” Dharker is trying to invoke that displacement is similar to a drug. For instance, we will have a sense of feeling that change is among us no matter how hard we try to push it away. We should embrace change because once we do we realize how many unopened doors that are available to us and the countless opportunities we are given every day. In other words, at the end of the day, we have to accept change even if it comes with bad outcomes we have to engage and see it from a different perspective and a positive brain state. Overall, we don’t know what the future holds and we can only hope for the best and continue fighting this constant cycle of change.
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