The Room

· by · in dVerse, poetry. ·

Once in a lifetime you tiptoe into
a vacant room, not just devoid
or airless but breathless, dustless
as in being left out; not out
of spite but in care, like a sea
in turmoil or that of compassion
in finding the path for yourself
growing and learning, letting
me stumble hurting my toe;
telling me only crying is good
letting me leave on Saturday
night, not being anxious but
smiling at my morning-after
headache from hell, letting
me carve a life out of nothing
but me and myself until I found
you left me alone without care
for yourself, and I return later
like Odysseus, a stranger, to
a room brim filled with ash.

Watercolor generated from an original photograph by myself.

Kim hosts dVerse Poetics tonight with a challenge to write our own poem inspired by the poem ‘The Window’  by Mary Jean Chan here.

My choice was to write more about leaving my home growing up, learning by my own mistakes and that sorrow in learning too late what my parents could have taught me.

August 18, 2026

17 responses to “The Room”

  2. Oh, those vacant rooms, Björn, you never know what you’ll find. I like the three-word movements: airless/breathless/dustless and telling/letting/anxious and love the allusion to Greek mythology and the hint of regert in the ending.

  6. I’ve read this so many times, each time imagining the different aspects, the feelings, and then thinking back to my own, understated last time I left for university. On a train, with all my belongings! So well done.

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