Can one call it a home if you barely know it home is a jibjab of blocks & rooms joined by that old concrete which is also my “home”, I grew up here. home is this pattern of walking, dipped in my mind, when I walk home from the train station I am already home because the blocks & the sun set & the rail & the street corners & the glow of the orange street lamp against this dim night on this summer night where I sit out in the backyard & look up & hear the airplanes roar from faraway & see the glow of other neighboring houses & I go & I leave because sometimes I want to & I go the path I’ve been going to since I was a little lad & I sit there & I rub my hands through my temple wondering why a worry isn’t a worry until I’m worried about it & I grit my teeth bitter & I feel the acid mist up my throat & I wanna be home I wanna be home I wanna be home so let me come home & let me make a home for myself where I can shower & laugh! & sit & cradle myself & worry & wanna just a safe place, a compact, low slow ceilings bring the mind to the self & think those thoughts that aren’t a thought & there is music

Once every couple nights I witness fairies dance Dusting dreams of lotus leaves and monsoon moons of past I never thought to offer them tobacco nuts a few They punish me with memories of home I never knew Village prayers, goats which scurry off in bordered lands They wash away with present tides like footprints in the sand Once every couple nights these nymphs let me atone They see me grieve my grandma’s grave this angel stone, alone.

Tides of salt and searing, leave them to the ocean, Cast aside those battles once won Let me be your succor, your everlasting siren, Keeping you afloat with my song. O, this warrior you were, calloused of souls, Stops you from smelling the rose of today. Scrape off these scabs, taste of this dew, Promising I shall not lead you astray. Toss adrift your armaments, toss your arms around me. Graze your nails on sun-daughter skin. Silks and satins plenty, woven in my fresh loom, goblets brimming cold wine and gin. We the Witch and Warrior, endlessly debating Tricks and twists to treat us until the apocalypse Enrapturing each other, locks of hair entangled, Lovers hiding in the eclipse. Still, why do your scarréd cheeks, turn to the sea, Memories drowned of your home faraway? Years pass you by, time still does turn, Join me in hand, our own fantasy. O, why do your wizened hands, claw at your chest, Wounding the flesh yet to heal nowadays? All that I’ve done, am I not enough? Spells and salts, my divine, swept away. Witness my pharmaka, herbs and spice of heaven, Magic here to make you stay for all eternity. Yet such coercion cuts me, I seek your heart unchallenged. Leave me now, return to the sea.