Home Is Still Here

I still sleep behind the dresser in the hall

Where the shadows feel like blankets, and the silence feels small

The roof is gone, but I still know

Where the fire used to glow

Mama's voice is in the cracks

She tells me stories when the wind comes back

I draw on walls with broken chalk

And talk to ghosts who never talk

I make a game out of each creak

Pretend the wind's just playing hide and seek

If I pretend the war's not near

Then maybe home is still right here

Home is still here in the way the floor sings

In the dent in the wall from my toy with wings

The world outside might be torn and smeared

But I still feel her voice

So home is still here

"She sang me to sleep even when the bombs came."

"The pictures fell, but I remember every one."

"He carved our names in the pantry wall. I found them yesterday."

"I think that's where love lives now."

The wind blows loud, but I don't cry

This corner still smells like lullabies

The world is broken, loud, unclear—

But I made it mine

And home is still here

Home is still here in the quiet hum

Of the kettle that whistles, though the power's gone numb

I don't need light to make it appear—

I carry her voice

So home is still here

Even if it all falls down again

I'll still be here hiding singing surviving.