Introduction: Talk about the freedom for us to travel through the different states around our country. Share examples of people in countries that don't have the freedom to live where they choose.
Wanting to Move
by Vijaya Mulchopadhyay, India
Continually, a bell rings in my heart.
I was supposed to go somwhere, to some other place,
Tense from the long wait--
Where do you go, will you take me?
"With you, on your horses, down the river, with the flame
of your torches?"
They burst out laughing.
"A tree wanting to move from place to place!"
Startled, I look at myself--
A tree, wanting to move from place to place. A tree
Wanting to move? Am I then--
Born here, to die here
Even die here?
Who rings the bell, then, inside my heart?
Who tells me to go, inside my heart?
Who agitates me, continually, inside my heart?
From This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems From Around the World, Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye, Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Extension: Talk about the caste system in India, which is another is another kind of boundary which keeps people in their places socially and economically.
Naomi Shihab Nye
Born 1952
St. Louis, Missouri
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