boy

Every house has its own distinct smell. This one smells like sandalwood and soft ocean spray, a complete juxtaposition to the last. That one smelled like pine needles and Christmas.

Like the rest, this one is built with large bones. My room is bigger than it's ever been – a cavernous maw slathered in cool gray tones. I survey it with pursed lips. My queen bed is dwarfed by the emptiness.

Mom will most likely get me a whole new furniture set to fill up all of the space. I don't mind, as long as I can keep my desk. It's warm and worn, and has been in my family for generations. There's nothing like the connection that I feel to my ancestors as I share their old workspace.

Grasping my backpack, I hastily unzip and dig through to find my notebook. Worse-for-wear, but tenderly loved, it contains everything that is me. Thumbing through, I find a blank page and begin to scratch out my first entry in the new house – new town, new state, new life.

Ode to a Cardboard Box

O'lovely cardboard box, what treasures do you

hide? All that is my world, you carry inside.

Stuffed to the brim, and bent to extreme, you are

The best of our team.

From here, to there, despite inclement weather, you

have mostly fared. Brown and square, with splotches there

And there. Packing tape gives way, and with a big

Sigh you say, "good day."

So out comes my old trophies and medals, all

Crumpled together between sheets of the news.

Hands grasp and tear, packing peanuts fly everywhere.

Sweep? Maybe later.

Now we are all done. Unpacking is never

Fun. Especially for the box. That always

Gets the toss. Pressed down into the trash, with last

Night's greasy old mess.

Hi guys - happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy my new fic! Chapters will be short (~500 words) and I will be updating twice a week. Let me know in the comments what you think!

xo