BUSHFALLER – NOW I AM

Bushfaller – Now I am.

 

The Bushfaller experience, a trap with perks,

Call me stupid, call me native, but Someone should have told us sooner,

That it’s good enough to live in two seasons,

And there we were, thinking four was better?

 

Those Bushfallers, the darn good photos they take,

Was it the excitement of seeing them in snow,

or the misguided perception that all that glitters

is just a glow and still for show;

 

O Man, Bush is the place to be, and bling,

Education or not, the dollar’s got sting.

So why did Common sense forget to mention

that it’s all a matter of condition;

 

Remember that hustle for docs?

The cost, the process, the missteps, the sacrifice

Where is the money, dad will borrow, or this and that

Mom will sell, Uncle will try, or aunty may suffice

 

A day of joy, visa in hand, dang miracle, thank the Lord,

Daddy sobs, Mom is still, smell the roses, pack away

Who to tell, farewell party, hopes and dreams, I now must carry

dear Immigrant depart already, Bushfaller return with plenty

 

O, decade later,

what a cost, what a spin?

there are plays,

if dear alien says nay, he will dismay

 

Assimilation, a masquerade, o dignity where art thou?

Identity, soiled in confusion, my soul still searches on

If I return, will they see, the pain I wrestle, the void I’ve come to fill,

Resolution, live, laugh, and love, bushfaller is who now I am.

 

by IVO NDOUMBE MEKOLLE

Sept 2013