Write From Home Anthology

Ghizlane Elguil, Benslimane.

A Stranger in Foreign Lands My journey has come to its end. I have come so far, searching for the meaning of life, yet I am not quite certain, whether I should label this quest a noble one.

It all started on a cold, rainy day of December, when I first have seen the light of the day. My first impressions of this world were by no means congenial. The inclement weather made my fragile bones shiver in an uncontrolled motion. The fumes that emanated from cars hang above my head like giant mosquitos, trying to suck the blood out of me. I tripped on my knee, as I was endeavoring to dismount from what seemed exactly like a grey heap of fur. I suppose, that’s where my parents left me. Despicable! I knew I wasn’t born for any good, for the very people that brought me to this life, had renounced me long before I could make sense of my surroundings.

Knowing that I had been abandoned adds no fun to being alive. It cuts deeply into my heart, when all I have ever wanted was to meet a human, to feel their warmth and to be closest to their hearts than anybody else. I wanted to be sheltered from the sun, the rain and the ugly, goblin-like fumes that made my heart so weak.

I had been traveling all around the world, seeking their sympathy, and asking for shelter. My supplications went unheard; they evaporated in the murky air, and came down again as thunder, upon their heads. Humans are such selfish, and arrogant creatures, they only care for themselves. Yes, of that I am certain.

Behold! I am no wise man; I know nothing about climate change, or about the poor that perished in hunger, whilst others slept on floating beds. These people harvested the wreck they have sowed.

I am the harbinger of joy and misery. When the earth saw what good I had brought to the oceans and trees, it beamed in anticipation. The salubrious morning breeze caressed my bare skin, and its mild warmth engulfed my heart like a magical mantle, while the birds fluttered and tweeted in merriment. The very sky above chanted in tandem with the snow-white clouds.

I knew I was loved, and I cherished all the elements of nature.

Humans mistook me. They took me for a fiend and closed their doors in the face of my deplorable state. Yet if they loved their families, why did they go out every day, unprotected while they fought for stupid toilet papers? At this point, I cannot decide who is more stupid. If 17 | P a g e