Shelter

I wouldn't be here
if I had anywhere else to go
this place is so poverty chic
no one should ever have to pay
to live here

Yet it's still better
than a week in a motel room
with a hyperactive toddler
whose favourite toys
end up being a wardrobe
and empty kitchenette draws

I dragged the two single mattresses
into the lounge room last night
I wasn't sure I'd be able to sleep in the bedroom
without wishing I was home
and I don't want to go home

Home isn't the safe place
I imagined it would be
it's four inescapable walls
of drunken words that hit
as hard as a clenched fist
yet leave less obvious scars

So I sit here
among the poverty chic decor
with a cup of coffee
waiting for another microwave meal
to heat up
knowing that this is better than homelessness
wishing it wasn't better than home

© Indie Adams 2021