Un-home-liness

A German diver who was living in Crete once said:
“I love both countries, but I belong to neither of them.”                         He lost his identity, trying to find one
because both countries – both so diverse,
so distinguished in their culture,
only allow him to choose their own one. 
A six-year-old girl trying to make friends at school                              did not succeed, and therefore,
ended up eating her lunch alone.                                         Her roots differed so much from the Western world,                                      but becoming like them in order to fit
seemed so absurd. 
Some years later, she felt the same feeling of unhomeliness,                      because stereotypes had turned her life into a sheer mess.
And one day it dawned on her,
she was caught in this cultural gap                                because she needed something                                                    many people already had. 
The German diver might never learn the power of his words –
How both he and many others yearn for a cultural identity, 
how humankind needs to change fundamentally,
how acceptance and a sense of belonging are a necessity.                      He was brave enough to address the truth,
to speak of the cultural gap,
which for many of us
has become a hopeless trap. 

© Elena Natroshvili 

IG: 16minutepoetry