Today you'll find me in the role of home sick slick,
Owning a back street stage in an auditorium of ghosts,
I'll take my bow and go on down to an amber haven of disillusioned bravery.
I'll wake to the sound of drums rumbling in my gut,
wash my pale face with water filled with paint,
And then I'll swipe the toast, smile ready to boast,
wishing I'd be behind some walls and a moat.

A.J Simmons '17. ©

i miss my city and her smile
but i can't go home for a while

i heard a song and it broke my heart
it ripped me apart

jesus christ i feel like a black hole
and i just want to be whole

i can't trust who i thought i could
and i hate that i thought i should

i want to see how long i'll have to wait
til he sees my love has turned to hate

oh my god i think i'm drowning
i am a bird with a broken brown wing

i am so tired
i am so tired

When you're not around is when I feel homesick, because my house was no longer my home - you were.

Red lighting so brilliant against the black sky. White lighting dance before my eyes.
Explosive in the storm waiting to break this warmth. Bringing fear to many, while captivating more.
Reminds me of reminiscent times as a young care free child waiting for the storms. The smell of the ionized air, the smells of the desert alive as lightning

Lately I've been homesick
For the girl I used to be
Im in the same place with the same people
But the loneliness lays in me
I'm a hopeless romantic who's found love
Yet my heart has been ripped from my sleeve
Deep down, all the things I used to cherish have been shoved
The crazy, tea-drinking, book-reading girl is who I grieve
I'm a mere skeleton of the free spirit I was
I've been chasing a warm cozy feeling but it was never retrieved
For the home I've been feeling for is inside of me
My life may be onto better things but still I reminisce
For the girl who would so simply find bliss
My problems have been solved
So why does it hurt?
Maybe it's time
I put my heart back out onto my shirt

Depression can be found coiled tightly around my heart
Tugging on the strings to evoke painful memories.
Things that could have been,
Of dreams that can never be real.

Depression can be found in the mirror,
mocking my body for how it’s all wrong,
fat in places, there shouldn’t be.
Roundness where there should be angles.

Depression can be found in nature
where the beauty or lack thereof,
reminds me of how it isn't 'home'.
The stars don’t shine here.

It is always overcast.

I explored all there was to see
cities, islands, mountains
there was a new place to visit every single day
each one full of life
I could see my dreams coming alive
but in my heart was a pang of longingness
I love all these places but at the end of the day
I just want to go back home and sleep in the same bed that I used to when I was a kid.