You should expect nothing

There are days of glee and sorrow,
There are days of wonder and freight,
There are days of worry, insecurity —
Thoughts that you’ve been victimised.

There are protruding, menacing, cutting eyes,
Staring.
They watch your every move.
It’s not some higher power or satan or big brother,
It’s just all the people who expect something from you.

And the days will pass you by. You will find new shores and highways.
You will look beyond the roofs of Karachi, and the markets of Lahore.
You will breathe in the stink of cities, leaving the Big Apple behind.

You will see the world — not really,
But it will be enough.

They will wonder where you’ve gone, maybe they really do care now.
Your decisions will run in their minds, like the donuts you made with your car in your youth —
The wheeze, eeks and hums, the loud engine and tire noise —
And they will still be saddened because they have lost themselves again.
And because they have found, they can expect nothing of you.

In the end,
You might just be so lucky, to find your town at the ends of those shores and highways.
You might just be so lucky, to find a city to call your own.
You might just be so lucky, to accept the world with all its mess.
You might just be so lucky, but you might not be.
Because you should expect nothing of the world—
When you want it to expect nothing of you.