At Home over There
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Namazie’s view of the homeland seeks to expand the nature of homeland beyond what european colonial ideas of it - confined to a particular place. The homeland is expansive and esists beyond the boundaries of time and space. “It is alive, unknowable, and does not exist” indicating its subjectivity and changing nature for everyone who holds its close. It is palimpset meaning that it exists upon the traces of another and is not unique. The homeland is not a place but an idea, one that keeps transforming and changing deciding who to include and who to spit out. Eventhough the homeland constantly changes the diaspora’s longing for it remains ever fervent, ever idealised.
For Namazie as a queer/trans poet, their homeland understands them unlike colonial ideologies would have them believe.
A line I really liked from the poem is that “homeland is timeless, nationless and stateless. It is practice” This really attests to the importance of actions, traditions and relationships in making a person, especially who is queer feel at home.
I might like to add something poetic of my own: “Transcending space and time, eternal is the home that shields me. Indeed it is me.”