When I go Home

Back not so long ago in Bali as you walked along the street, all the drivers would incessantly ask 'do you want transport' or 'transport, transport'. Now they just hold a sign saying 'transport'. Did someone complain, did the government bring in a new decree? Like all really annoying things, once gone you miss them. So for this poem to work now, you have to imagine the guys still hassling and doing that crazy steering wheel mime as you approach.

When I Go Home

when I go home
I want a Balinese man
to stamp my documents
with his warm smile

to greet me at the airport gate
holding high a sign with my name on it
as if he has been waiting for me
all my life

when I go home
I want a Balinese man
to take all my luggage
and lose it!

when I go home
I want a Balinese man
to ask me every day
what i would like to eat and drink
and even if it takes an hour or more to arrive
I won't mind
as long as he walks by every few minutes
and gives me
THAT smile

when I go home
I want a Balinese man
to sweep away my sorrows
with his morning shwishk shwisk shwisk

to oh so languidlly
dust off all my hard edges

to pick me
like the red hibiscus flower
and place me
gently on the bed

when I go home
I want EVERYONE I meet
to be SO interested in where I am going

and when they ask
Do you want transport?

I'll say

take me

TAKE ME

take me back to your Bali
so I can remember
how beautiful beauty really is.

Poem (c)Jan Cornall Ubud 2004
Winner of peoples choice award at the first poetry slam of the inaugural Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.
Paintings (c) Jumaadi, courtesy of the artist and Watters Gallery.
http://www.wattersgallery.com/artists/JUMAADI/Jumaadi.html