Amanda Joshua
In Search Of Home
I hope we have a sliding door
we leave open sometimes
Watch the raindrops come shyly to the deck
Then lick the wood
a darker richer colour
I hope we give a little time
to how tender it smells
The green wet of the grass
you might mow on Tuesdays
By then I hope
we will have grown
many lavender bushes
I read it quietens anxious minds
Brew the blooms
in tea for you I will
tuck them in your shirt pockets
Hope then
you will find the world
less deafening
When the raindrops bring their small, damp feet
up the front steps
I hope we open that door sometimes
Let them in
In Search Of Home, Pt.2
Like to walk down this road in Mt Eden
Sprawling villas, small brick-laden
paths trailing to wrap around porches
There’s a woman perched on that one
Messy-haired and laughing
by her squirming 3-year-old
Follow Kendrick Lamar blasting
two homes down
To a lanky, beanie-headed boy
spraying the left side of his garage
a furious purple
Lavender lines the windows
of this cottage
And there are books lining
softly pink walls
Stretch on tiptoes
for a glimpse of who could be
Stacking Dr Phil by Jane Austen
Not judging they’re both
great for self-help
All this life tucked away
inside even
that awkward apartment complex
Wonder who has dominion
over the blowing laundry
on their shared clothesline
Pause one house over for
heart work gone into
carefully weeded flowerbeds
where marigolds doze
Who chose the colours
on that stained glass door?
Move on before the steaming mug’s drinker
can return to their home office
The girl by her lemon tree
teaching herself guitar
The work it takes to learn to build a life
It makes me so hungry that
I linger by a house with its porch light on
The cars all safely home
So much warmth in the voices
bleeding from the living room
Force myself to walk on
before they can begin to wonder if
I’m casing the joint
Amanda Joshua has writing published in Starling, Sweet Mammalian, The Friday Poem, Blackmail Press, Kate Magazine, Craccum, Tarot, Turbine, foam:e, LondonGrip, Poetry NZ and Takahē. In her spare time, she tries to keep her houseplants alive and contemplates dropping her law degree.