The crossroads.

Sitting under the shade of a tree

resting from working

In the citrus orchard.

I viewed the crossroads

Of my future life.

A lonely decision.

Nineteen was the age to be brave

To take the right path

One path to London

Back to square one.

Same old dreariness

Same old hostility

Same old fear.

To mediocrity

Same family rows

A city life drone.

The other path

To go to India

Promised and planned for

With my friend, who now had a man

To find the answers

In an ashram.

Her eager plans with me forgotten.

Do I travel alone?

Stretching outward invitingly

The path to Mexico

With my love

plunging into the unknown.

Better a path raw and new.

Than loosing the chance to

Find a life

Where I could discover

Who I could be.

Reinvent myself.

With my love whose warmth

Heated my iced in heart.

The road to Mexico

Raw and exciting

Young love so tender,

trembling, tenuous

Could be easily caste aside

Through my second sight

I could see further ahead

To a future

When together as soul mates

We would reach our serenity

And rejoice

in our togetherness

 

I stepped out of the pristine palace

of the airport

Into a strange land

Cicadas screaming

Crows cawing

Street venders shouting out

their wares

Corn on the cob, green mangos.

Short square Indians

with embroidered dresses

Serapes to protect

themselves from the chill

Of a city 2,500 meters into the sky

“So this is my new daughter in law”

He said with veiled sarcasm

Giving a high pitched thin laugh.