Surplus Self

Why is it that various diasporas - despite their own immigrant origin - often espouse xenophobic politics of the populist right? "Each consciousness seeks the death of the Other." - G.W.F. Hegel

The lonesome trails of a cloud diffuse,
To tender mist of new autumn's morn,
In warmth we settle, whilst I muse-
The patterns of their swirling tongues.

Seize the blue-eyed gapes that court,
With songs of winds and stars that bore,
Me hence from nameless land afar;
(No passing gaze'd tell us 'part).


When tempest fate did cast thy name!
Since ravaged shores whence I'd set forth...
As shadows in my centered frame,
(Or pungence in a balmy broth)?

And you tread the blades as I once braved,
Distinguished 'gainst the pale dissolve,
Greet the swathes of strange verbiage,
(With a stutter and a sorry drawl)?


The passing strides while lend their ears,
As artifacts in my accent rear;
To grey distrust in blue-eyed glares,
And thy gaze... as my surplus self.

The migrant trails of clouds surround,
In bitter haste, the crowd vacates,
And I thus left midst icy grounds,
By you - the sour precipitates.