A short poem about leaving home from my first collection – The Round Journey – when the place where you live isn’t perfect, who really knows what the ideal home looks like?

Leaving home

First steps are cautious,

The outside world is a stranger from the street,

holding a warm foil wrapped pot of normality,

A stew to pick over later

The world continues to turn but feels still,

Motion sickness flickers,

You are on your way, with

a glancing underappreciation of the sky

in all its dumbfounded gory glumness,

This journey is a walk inside yourself,

A rekindling of what you are now they are gone

Rebranding the skin, you live within

Double knotted, zipped and buttoned up,

The first journey from home, tough as a toddler

wobbly stepping stone walking,

The wider world is waiting to greet

The new born crunchy shell you peep from

Get on your way,

Start your tramping about,

Seek out remembrance to the 

landmarks and stories of your life,

See them for what they are afresh

New perspectives