Kushal Dhital
The place I was born in
became my birthplace
and America, where I came to work
turned out to be my workplace.
It was my obligation
to move abroad
leaving behind a leaking roof and crying mother.
When everyone else rejoices at home
I am driven away by the cash I owe.
To uphold my father’s faith and siblings’ hope
moving abroad was my compulsion,
but every day the dream I cherished before coming
have been all but shattered now.
Here I shook in Japan
as quake quivered my country, there.
O, my lot! I’m barred for sharing sorrows.
I neither mended the roof, nor wipe any drop of tear.
Wasted is my mind; wasted is all my life.
[Kushal Dhital is a Nepali poet from Budanilakantha, Kathmandu. He is presently in Gifu, Japan]
My Obligations
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