My home
Is the most beautiful place on earth
The sweet blossom breeze agrees
As she lifts my golden hair
I can hear the cedar trees beckoning me back
Every time I leave
I can feel the daisies between my toes
The seagulls gliding in the salty air
Waving at me
The sparrows singing
The bumble bees waltzing
My home
Where the clear-cuts scatter the mountains
Like a patchy quilt
More and more and more
It’s all I can see
When I drive to the grocery store
To buy bananas and bread
My home
Where it hurts
Watching it shrink
Seeing it disappear
I can’t go home
Not anymore
The guilt heaves itself upon me
Heavier and heavier
The hypocrisy of my life
Blazes across my eyelids
My home
Where I sit in the garden
Watching the chickens
Pecking the ground
Cocking their heads at me
Mom sings to the dogs
Loud and off-tune
Dad makes coffee
Dark and bitter
There is nothing more
Nothing more I could want
My home
Where the void envelops me
Don’t take it away
I whisper to someone somewhere
Don’t take it away
I scream to the wind
I sit there
Paralyzed
Frozen in horror
In shame
How I love my home
How I wish I could love it less
Silently
My tears fill the ocean
My home
Can you not see my home?
How beautiful she is?
How she gives us more than enough?
If we could just sit still for a moment and listen
But we need jobs
But we need money
But we need a good economy
Yes yes and yes!
But at what cost?
Greed only leads to suffering
If we destroy our home
Where will we go?
Where will we go
My home
Is your home too
Watch as she is destroyed
Listen as she goes quiet
Feel as she leaves you
And tell me
It feels worth it
Tell me
It feels necessary
My home
Where I’m a little girl
Unable to say how she feels
Frustration welling under her skin
Suffocated with too much
Unable to find the right words
We can find another way
I beg
Not angry at anyone but myself
Balling my small fists at my side
Taunting laughter echoes in my ears
‘Stuck in her head’
‘Dreams that aren’t realistic’
‘You don’t know how the world works’
‘You’ll never be enough’
My home
Where my heart tells me otherwise
When I sink my hands into the earth
When I feel her heartbeat
So close to mine
When I float on my back
In a lake so clean and deep
Climbing a tree
Higher and higher
Looking out into infinite pines
The emptiness whisked away
In a haze of deep green
In the smell of damp moss
A smile on my face
Hands opened wide
Turned towards the sky
My home
Where I’ve never really left
Always within me
The land that will remember me after everyone forgets
My fingerprints traced into wrinkled bark
My footsteps carved into soft soil
My laughter singing with the sea scented wind
My meaning rising with the daffodils and bluebells
My home
A home to be proud of
A home to come home to
A promise
A whisper past blue lips
I’ll save you
I’ll save you
A quiet smile
A gentle embrace
You already have
You already have
12/04/2025