A Home in my Heart

“hiraeth”

I close my eyes to summon that place dry and windy skirting the desert

summer’s heat runs through my veins and the Santa Ana wind tangles my hair

on nearby tracks the Southern Pacific sits its engine idling for hours the air choked with fumes

my scattered thoughts roll like tumbleweeds blowing across the sandhills

it seems my soul stays rooted here although years upon years upon years have gone by

yet that hot, smelly windblown place where I grew up will always have a home in my heart

Thanks to Kim McKinney for the prompt/challenge “hiraeth,” a Welsh word that refers to homesickness, nostalgia, a deep longing.

The following is a poem that perfectly describes the starkness of my hometown.

© Sydney Duke Richey 2020