'Home'

**29 Grosvenor Avenue, Highbury, London.

Shadows from street-lamps create a dance as she turns the key. She hears silence as she steps inside, engulfed by the incongruous smell, staggering slow into a minefield trance; searchlights beam. 

The kitchen has swapped places. The lounge has grown. There are no colours, light is upside down. Intensity mounts; her breathing becomes sharp and loud.

No pictures, no memories on the walls. No hugs, no laughter. Alone with her shadow, the sameness disconnects. She questions the emptiness, the boundaries of silence … how did home turn into a soul-less place?

within a fortnight

when the world turned upside down

she lost her footing

2nd poem for NaPoWriMo 2017

(*Haibun)

ⓒ Nicole Moore

*Haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.

**Photo of the house I lived in as a child with my mother and grandparents, taken in 2008.