“First Loves and Second Hand Lives” poem

“First Loves and Second Hand Lives”

A poem by Ayushi Chugh, MD on perspectives of immigrant professionals.

We bring First Loves
On Pearl strings of skill and art
Of fixing brains and forging hearts
On One-way tickets

Set sail to foreign shores
With gifts of parental memories
Waiting to exhale borrowed smiles
Share minds with other worlds

Driftwood soaked in knowledge
Stories etched in sweat
Prime years yearning to be acknowledged
Cost of priceless debt

Endless queues, eternal toil
Of worship lit in midnight oil
Life in shadows beckons our duty
A Calling, service or indemnity

Fly across seven seas
Build a home beneath bleeding feet
One day at a time uplifts like breeze
Beneath sanguineous severed wings

Everyday, re-attempt to rhyme
In imperfect sync
Unravel maze of new streets
Puzzles and imperfect fits

All is not lost as you own these roads
Find common ground
You never knew existed
On the map

See a new world
Through my offspring’s colored iris
Re-learn as he speaks my tongue
In strange accents

Tapestry of life threads
Historic Intertwines

Continuum of genetic knits
And futuristic knots

This world is but an oyster
For Diaspora on foreign shores
Enrich nations with embrace
Nuptials of Strength with tremendous Grace

So take that hand
That appears so different
Yet heart beats the same inside
Of First Loves and second hand lives....