Thin Places

by Maddie DePuy

Have you ever looked for home in all the wrong places? 

Have you ever tried to trace the edge of dwelling on contours in hotel sheets

or glide on the glint of luxury amenities and a premium view? 

Have you tried the ointment of a plane ticket 

the medicine of destination 

or the dose of a dream home? 

The promise of a perfect corner apartment 

or the rush of somewhere warm in February?

Have you thirsted for a resting place? 

Have you looked for it behind a door that got slammed 

inside eyes that eventually glanced away 

in between hands that could not hold yours 

could not hold out for home? 

Have you hoped for belonging

between the cracks of your iPhone 

in the crevasses of a digital ravine

only to find yourself stuck between a rock 

and a place too soft to be the foundation for anything?

Have you found the familiar places stale 

and the new places prone to quakes and waves? 

Here is a secret: 

almost 

everything 

falters. 

So what do you do

when the place you thought you could always go to  

is ruthless and yellow and vacant? 

Be the definition of fidelity.  

Write your manifesto on anti-transience. 

Where homelessness persists, dwell. 

Be the poster child for authenticity

and realize belonging 

is not something 

you can create for yourself.

It’s simply 

something you receive. 

Resist the urge of loneliness

to be your eternal echo.  

And if you write your manifesto 

and stand your ground 

and war, breathless for a new thing 

against all you cannot control 

determined for the antiquity of loneliness 

to stay ancient 

and you find yourself stretched thin as sky:  

don’t give up. 

When everything rages  

remember 

Home is far more 

quiet than you expect

belonging is 

relentless

kind 

and available.