inaka

by Kaille Kirkham

sometimes I wander, 

reading fading, peeling print off of tattered signs 

rusty shutters, boarded windows 

books, a sign assures me 

confectionaries, a shutter brags 

TOSHIBA, a boarded window promises 

I don’t know why it makes me sad, 

but that’s all they are: 

things that used to be. 

maybe that’s why I’m here too.

Kaille Kirkham is a queer American writer living in Tokyo.