the long flight
back and
back again

you can never return
to the same airport twice
they renovate the gates
repaint the signs
hire new staff with bright vests
who do not remember your face

okaeri she said
welcome home
but I was already
calculating departure times

language is a house
with too many rooms
I live in the hallway
light from both ends
belonging nowhere
fluent in doorways

---

London rain tastes different
than Tokyo rain
or maybe
I just learned
to close my mouth

I translate loneliness
eight hours a day
from one alphabet to another
as if changing the script
could change the weight

some nights
I write emails
in the language
I do not send them in

the deleted drafts folder
is the most honest room
in my entire house

#poetry #identity #displacement #bilingual