Three Heartbeats

My heart is a triad

Of cultural drums

Beating different names for home

Otthon is my birthmark

Traced by jam-stained hands

Where walls were warmed by crayon suns

If only they'd still stand

Renovated, painted over

By families of new

No childhood room to anchor me

Just boxes passing through

I long for climbing cherry trees

For roots I couldn't grow

Although I have been uprooted

I am not alone, I know

Hogar is my birthstone

A blaze of summer heat and salt

Sea creatures and palm trees

Tennis balls and art

Citrus fruits that trill their R’s

Monkey bars too hot to hold

Sun-kissed limbs in playground sun

My skin a burnished bronze and gold

Chameleon, chameleon

Ride the waves, collect shells

Adapt, but stay in touch with all

The new holas and new farewells

So Home is my birthright

One I didn't choose

Childhood friends raise families

In languages I lose

I fly across the ocean

For lukewarm morning brew

Our voices cross through satellites

But never quite break through

Skype, Insta, Whatsapp, Facebook

The hourglass will hum

The past, tucked in a distant nook

A time when we were one

Still with all the sorrow

No part would I rescind

With every fracture borrowed

Kaleidescopic light shines in

My heart beats in three:

Otthon, hogar, and home

My ribcage stretched to keep within

The homes I wear beneath my skin