The House Story
Parents house revisited
Paint scratches on the walls
Three different flower wallpapers
Plushies trapped in jars
Taxidermied childhood
My room facing the north
Like it always used to be
So strange, everybody acts like they’re on memory loss
There used to be an old married couple living downstairs
With their two sons, a daughter-in-law
And two grandsons
The younger son would smoke in his room
Home invasion through fogs and sounds
The room facing north
The room of a degenerate
I’d come back from school everyday
Nobody’s home yet
And I’d put my ears on the lounge floor
I’ve got ears on the top of my hands
I’ve got fingers on both sides of my head
Sound shout and scream
Bottles shattering
The kid’s having a fit
A battle where only women whimper
We never talked about the downstairs
He’s committing home invasion through fogs and sounds
Once my mum complimented the old lady
That their daughter-in-law’s an orphan
She’s got no parents
She calls the old lady, MOMMY MOMMY
She follows mommy everywhere
Then my mum gave away our storybooks to the downstairs
She always gave away used books to unfortunate people
Their daughter-in-law’s not an animal
But mum would compliment the downstairs
Like they’ve rescued a dog
The room facing north
The room of a degenerate
And I’m still thinking about it
While watching every window of families
If they’re all the same
Coming back from school
Nobody home yet
I’d put down my ears on the lounge floor
It’s not only me
Everybody lives like this
If I forget about this
I’d also become a woman
Who’d call her mother-in-law, MOMMY MOMMY
But still whimpers at the kitchen corner
After all these years
While everyone else’s forgetting about the world
That I still remember everything
(2022)