Lost
To quote my distant friend Imran MacLeod,
‘A man with no culture has no identity.’
The last I heard of him was, he was off
To the Himalyas.
He had a very confused childhood.
Father was Scottish,
Mother Pakistani.
They’d always be arguing over many things
Concerning him.
One was religion.
Father wanted him brought up
A Catholic; mother wanted a Muslim.
Was the only boy on our street who went
To mosque on Fridays and chapel on Sundays.
But in the mountains
God’s sure to find him.
Hamid Shami
Poem No 8 from ‘Wish I was here: a Scottish multicultural anthology (pocketbooks, 2000)
