Cardboard suffuses
My empty wooden dollhouse
Voices echoing
Weaving to a fuller place
A home none of us have known
A jumble of life
Is unpacked, yet entangled
Old and new twisted
Try to brush it out, but still
Last year’s dust coats the fresh walls
Step on odd sidewalks
Soles tracking differences
Every day the same
Pretending I belong here
Until the months convince me
Strangers’ faces stare
Specters on a TV screen
Then I memorize
Each one without forgetting
The countless people before
Scars wind through my heart
But healed and fortifying
The structure of life
Affection bleeds into view
Crafting a brighter sunrise
This poem is modeled after a tanka, a type of Japanese poem. Tankas typically tell stories of emotions or pivotal moments. This story includes both, depicting the emotional journey of moving.
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