As soon as I collect three thousand

You become a stranger in your own place

A stranger in foreign lands

They changed our names

And they look like boxes


So, you can have a permit to work

An uncle tells me

The old ones have to change

The names, above all


A thousand up and down in the piggybank

They called me Box

It didn’t bother me very much

I’m not going to stay there anyway


First job in Canada

Washing dishes, and lots of them

It took many loads of laundry

“To gather three thousand”


What kind of worker are you!

An uncle tells me

And I just keep scrubbing

So, the village won’t leave me


“Before I gather three thousand”

Not much time passed

I became a waiter

And instead of serving


There was an uproar

Three coffees in my hands

With a careful eye

I trip over my own feet


And onto the customer

Oh my God, Mike, I say

I’ll go back to the village

“When I gather three thousand”


When I sank

Into the routine of Canada

And drowned in evening tears

I thought of those I left behind

Those I loved so much