Sleepy Old Town

What you'd risk by leaving — and by staying.

There are risks to leaving that sleepy old town.

You could fall in love even without wanting to.

You could slip and fall.

You could discover vast riches,

get robbed,

see a hundred sunsets,

get stuck in a very long conversation with a local,

take a nap under a leafy tree.

So maybe,

just maybe,

staying in that sleepy town sounds better than it did before.

After all,

you could probably do all these things

without ever

packing your bags.

A poem by Pemba Umoja