My Hometown

By Maiesha Muntaki

What is your hometown? A place you return to with joy and feel comfort from. My poem will remind you of all the little elements that help us create our hometown. 

My hometown is the sound of air 
I hear while riding my bicycle
So is my hometown
  The mangas I read
So is my hometown
  The k-dramas I watch 
So is my hometown
  The moment I hit back the tennis ball
So is my hometown
  Every lustrous plant, flower, and tree I see
So is my hometown
  The studio ghibli music I get lost in
So is my hometown
  The silly and beautiful drawings I draw
So is my hometown
  Every word I write on my journal
They are the little delights that
Just give the comfort of home 
Ammu’s cooked warm curries and desi dishes
Are the best at making
My hometown whole
At times my hometown is an escape
Escape from reality
My hometown feels consoling 
From the comfort of tears
Nothing can ever replace them.
My hometown is serene and a haven
There’s no one needed
To fulfill it
All I need in my hometown is 
Just perfectly set

I want to be home
  when my feet and socks are wet
I want to be home
  when I have to choose between which friend I can be with
I want to be home
  when I’m distressed about deadlines
I want to be home
  when I feel disappointed and compare myself
I want to be home
  when I’m not the one she chose
I want to be home
  when the day feels long as if I’ve been seeing sundown the entire day
I want to be home
  When I’m rejected over and over
I want to be home.

Girls Write Now On the Other Side of Everything: The 2023 Anthology

Do you know what it’s like to communicate with your family across a salty ocean’s divide? Do you want the sun and moon to enter your home with stories written in embers? Do you seek voices that will punctuate the darkness? Welcome to the other side of everything. It’s the other side of silence, the other side of childhood, the other side of hate, the other side of indifference, it’s the other side of sides, where the binary breaks down. It’s a new paradigm, a destination, a different perspective, a mindset, a state of openness, the space between the endless folds in your forehead, hopes for tomorrow, and reflections on the past. This anthology of diverse voices is an everything bagel of literary genres and love songs, secrets whispered in the dark of night, conversations held with ancestors under the sea. 

READ ON THE OTHER SIDE

VISIT ANTHOLOGY LIBRARY

Process

This was inspired by the personal essay workshop with Scholastic, where one of the prompts was on hometown. I was missing how I couldn’t enjoy certain things as life started to get busier for me. From then on, I started feeling heavier. This poem felt very important for me to express the yearning to be back home. Through this poem I was able to recognize and discover what “home” really means to me and how big of a part it plays in my life.