I Travel Home Lyrics - Say Yes Evolved - Iyeoka

I travel home to remember the sound of morning 

I choose the evening to pray I remember this as it is 

For when the city returns 

When the sound of the green-line trolley cars and skyscrapers 

Surround my senses diminishing this version of my imagination 

I will remember this 

The silence and the night time 

I will remember red sand on bare feet 

My skin sticky glistening in the sun 

My hair like untamed wool 

I will remember the air thick of Africa 

I will remember my mother in the night 

And the children she cares for 

I will see them once more as they play 

Peeking at me from the crack in the doorway 

I will remember my aunti-- her famous Jeloff rice 

Asking me in flawless Ishan native tongue 

"Ofure...Onegbe?"...How is everything...you're too skinny" 

And I, struggling to keep up, clumsily responding 

"Butayay aunti?" That means, I don't know what you just said 

I will remember the market place 

The women selling smoked corn and plantain 

The taste of moy-moy and egusi 

The sound of Doris pounding yam 

Fresh oranges from the Arrimogiga farm 

When Boston city lights mask the majesty of my favorite constellations 

I will remember the moon... 

Pregnant and smiling 

Because I am a poet 

As if she knows that I am 

Invested enough to write about it 

Perhaps because I am a poet 

I will remember the unseen 

The homeless and the beggars, the roadside wanderers, 

People just trying to survive 

Children roadside selling cell phones and unwanted trinkets 

I will remember the local roads 

Beaten and eroded by rain and time 

Huts built beside a 15 story hotel skyrise 

So many having so much 

Neighbors with others living with nothing 

But the hand-me-downs on their backs 

And the realities of poverty crushing their 

Promises of tomorrow 

I leave behind my rose colored glasses 

In my grandfather's village 

Because when my plane finally lands back in Boston 

I want to believe that Nigeria changes me every time 

These moments teach me how to recognize what we take for granted 

Constant electricity and clean water 

Hospitals on every corner 

The opportunity to rise beyond our native borders 

These are the details that risk a fate of becoming lost or forgotten 

Like sounds of the morning 

For when the city returns 

When the sound of the green-line trolley cars and skyscrapers 

Surrounds my senses diminishing this version of my imagination 

I will remember this 

I need to remember this