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Homing instinct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2025

Tarek Zieneldien Open the ORCID record for Tarek Zieneldien [Opens in a new window]
Tarek Zieneldien*
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
*
Email: Zieneldient1@gmail.com
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Abstract

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Information

Type
Poetry
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 23 , 2025 , e162
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
I was born beside the mango tree
Grew tall, reaching for the baby green mangos
I craved the sour skin that hid the innocence behind the seed
I was always close but never close enough –
Especially once entire oceans stood between us
So, when I received the news
My homing instinct was too strong to resist
The only thing worse than dying
Was dying in a land that was not my own
I craved resting my head on my grandmother’s mango tree
Then using fallen branches to knock down baby green mangos –
A diorama of my childhood
Before explaining the next steps
Take me back
I want to hear them in my native tongue
I want to understand
And process the gravity of the situation
Beneath the shade of the mango tree

Competing interests

The author declares no conflicts of interest.