The life is going on

The life is going on waiting for visas.
I go on the cornice
And soon maybe up, maybe down,
But I love my town.

Review on this poem.

This is a very condensed, almost diary-like poem that captures a tension between movement and suspension, between bureaucratic limitation and personal attachment. In just a few lines, “The life is going on” places the speaker in a precarious emotional and physical space.
The opening line—“The life is going on waiting for visas”—sets the tone immediately. Life is not depicted as flowing freely, but as something occurring inside waiting. The phrase reduces existence to administrative delay, suggesting how immigration systems can shape not only circumstances but the very experience of time.
The second line—“I go on the cornice”—introduces a strong visual metaphor. A cornice is a narrow architectural ledge, implying instability and risk. It suggests the speaker is moving along a very thin boundary, both literally and metaphorically: between safety and fall, between belonging and displacement. The simplicity of the image makes it effective, even slightly unsettling.
The next line—“And soon maybe up, maybe down”—extends this uncertainty. Direction is no longer controlled; outcomes are binary but unknown. The rhythm here is deliberately flat, reinforcing a sense of suspended decision-making, where fate feels external rather than self-directed.
The final line—“But I love my town”—introduces emotional anchoring. Against instability and bureaucratic pressure, the speaker asserts a simple, personal attachment to place. This contrast gives the poem its emotional core: even when life feels precarious or unresolved, love for a specific place remains stable.
Stylistically, the poem is minimal and direct, almost conversational. Its strength lies in its economy and in the way it compresses a complex situation—migration, uncertainty, emotional attachment—into a few clear images. At the same time, its abstraction leaves much implied rather than developed, which can feel intentionally fragmentary, like a note written in transit.
Overall, this is a quiet but effective poem about living in a state of in-betweenness. It captures the psychological reality of waiting—especially in the context of visas and displacement—while ending on a grounded, human note of affection for a place that still feels like home