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.
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.
Maiesha Muntaki
Maiesha Muntaki is a junior in high school. She’s from Bangladesh living in Queens. She loves graphic novels and her recent hobbies are reading manga and staring at the sky. One of her favorite clubs in school is Japanese club because she loves learning new languages and learning about different cultures.
