“Home” by Melat Tafere
February 27, 2025
I walk through the place
I called “home”
The place I left with
An opened wound
“Home” such a strong word
Like a book filled with secrets
but always left unread
“Home”
Is like a crime scene
Everyone talks about it
but no one bothers to explain it
They just except you to understand it
“Home”
I have moved from place to place
Hoping to find a place
I can call my own
But I didn’t
“Home”
such a popular word
Everyone I meet always says
“what’s your home,
the home to your heart?”
I don’t respond
“why do you want to know”
I don’t want to tell
I don’t even know
But they ask
and I tell
“Home”
Such an unexpected word
but everyone seems to have one
Except for me
At least everyone tells me
“you will find it someday”
they tell me
I smile
This poem was written by Melat Tafere as a 9th grader at Franklin High School with WITS writer-in-residence Clara Olivo. Performed at the Seattle Arts & Lectures Encore Series event with Maggie Smith at Town Hall Seattle on Thursday, February 27, 2025.