Poems - Chloe Lyda

Before Leaving

The easiest way

to describe Japan:

tradition.

A place for everyone,

for women,

for me?

Silence follows that question,

maybe there is something

I can change?

Moments Until I Left

Elation

runs through my bones,

America before me wrapped in ribbon, in opportunity,

in...

something more?

“Escaping Japan,

via marriage,

how smart.”

Upon Arrival

Shocking, shaking,

less than,

dirty, hard,

harder than Japan.

bad.

16 Years In America

“Struggled”

 is but one single way

to put my experiences.

Abuse, at the hands

of a military man,

at the hands of America.

Sixteen years until

happiness

in America. 

A Visit Home

Like returning home

after a long time,

like lying under the sun,

feeling the familiarity of

warmth.

 Warmth, normalcy?

But… changed

New

Different, is this my

 old home now?

My mother tongue,

now rolls out of my mouth

more like chunks than

like smooth syrup.