i went to new york city with my parents and i thought it was the greatest place in the world
i went to new york city on my own and i thought i couldn’t stay more than a weekend
but i still watched the sunset from the high line and knew i was in concrete paradise
surrounded by strangers and the most exciting people in the world
the sea was bluest in italy when i was alone
i didn’t know what to do with it
i swam at four in the morning and i thought i was an adult
but i felt lonely and needed to find something
then i slept on a fold-out bunk bed above a kitchen table and i think i was even more grown up
we sat in the south for a fortnight
it rained everyday according to our memory
but definitely not because we almost went swimming and the sun burnt my shoulders
even though i pretended it didn’t
so we won’t go back there
because it rains in our head and that’s not a very good holiday
I went to tuscany with my family and we ate every meal by the pool
by the trees
on the hill
looking out over the whole of europe
i could see home from that hill
i was young and that didn’t bother me
now granny is in a nursing home and my mum hates rats too much to go back
so i have to wait another twenty years for that feeling again
Art by Nadia Lee
