2. A Definitive (Poetry)

-Nine-

(A/N: Bear with me, this one is by no means a call for pretentious intelligence or a boast of my twisted aesthetic. It's really just something that means a lot to me. It is me. And I think that's honest and raw and beautiful. And something doesn't have to fall off of the back of Shakespeare to  be beautiful. So I hope you feel something out of it too.)

 This Is Home:

Quiet 'shush's from across the hall

In response to my mums snores

Dad calls them 'honk poo's'

And if that's strange,

That's my family to you.

My brother cracks beers down the hall

And the kitchen smells like barbecue and cake

Mum's a cook in a cafe

And dad works in a factory

These are the places I come from,

This is my origin story you see

My brother's a genius and a freak

My dog smells like dirt when he rolls in the sheets

My family is loud and abrasive, secrets we don't keep.

The paddocks glow orange after it rains

And in Spring rabbits run unchained.

There's a blue iron gate

And there's a dog buried in the yard

There's enough land to be land but not considered a farm.

On Summer nights we sit outside

Underneath back porch lights

Mum hangs up fairy strings you see

Glowing neons that remind her of me

Dad mans the stations of cooking, tongs in hand

Pools flood concrete

A half hours trip and you can find sand

A slice of heaven I call my own

A beach I used to have for a backyard

Now gumtrees grow.

I'm the one of the family who takes photos

Camera in hand

I watch them live beside me and I think

How could I ever be more glad.

For all that it's worth,

For all of the pain,

The tears and the fighting, the abuse and the pain,

We've come so far and it's made me strong,

Made me grown.

Where I come from is a people of its own.

Where I come from is home.

~J.K.M.