Willow’s Song

Written by: Zoe Luglan

This is home

Where time moves like honey

And the willows mourn,

So we don’t have to

Where summer storms whisper: 

Be like the pines,

Bend don’t break

This is home

Where the sun kisses my nose pink

And paints stars on my cheeks

Where I meet my first best friend

Delicately interwoven, vine and chain metal

She gifts me my first honeysuckle

This is home

Where I trade baby dolls for band posters

And bedtime stories for midnight sorrow

Where the cicadas’ shrill song

Rises like the tide,

Drowning out the connubial cries

This is home

Where I grow tired

Tired of the slamming doors

Of cowering in the dark

Barefeet on carpet 

And hangers in my hair,

I ask the walls

Is this home?

Desperate for something, anything else, I leave

I begin to barter with the world

Trading passport stamps for answers

Distance becomes my teacher

Some miles later, I discover

The palms will never shelter me like the oaks

And you guys will never comfort me like y’all

I long to go home

Where I once twirled and twirled

In my Sunday dress and mom’s lipstick

In a subtle shift, my inner stars align

All at once, I understand

There is dark and there is light

Hurricanes come and hurricanes go

And it might never be the same

But this is life, this is home

We are left bare, empty, and scared

But we are left anew

This is home

Where the willows soothe our tired souls

And we begin again