across Europe

July 18, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

my shirt
still kind of smells
like all the memories
made
in Europe

unfortunately
it’s all the mundane
or slightly grungy memories
that this scent evokes

walking and walking and walking
in shirts i’d already maybe worn twice
mixing sweat with deodorant
with sunscreen
with city

i washed this shirt well
put it through an extra rinse and everything

i guess when a trip gets into the fibers of clothing
it’s sort of like a city getting into your own bones

it just won’t go
away on its own

July 15, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

how come i am so hyper-aware
of every moment in time
and how they will become memories
in the next moment

so much so that, even trying to experience them, i am often thinking
fifteen minutes[at least] into the future

i feel like i was barely in the moment
of looking forward to this trip
and only in it
for half a second
and now i’m back
and looking back on
experiences i know took time to have
but now they live only in my
memory

July 9, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

a family
a train ride
and thousands of sunflowers
in fields rolling past
at 266 km/h

and somehow it all reminds me of
van Gogh’s paintings
and how much i want to become
an impressionist

~~~

i just got so confused
as to why the baby in front of me
wasn’t crying in response to the
baby crying in the next train car over

and then i remembered that babies are not dogs
who bark and howl to be heard by others
of their species…

~~~

this whole trip
is a whirlwind

this whole life
kind of is
too

at least i have a train car
inside which to sit and write
all my silly poems

~~~

every
single
time
another train passes directly by
i
am
startled

~~~

there are
so many more palm trees
than i ever would have expected
in Europe

[i think that’s on me tho,
because climate is a known thing]

~~~

i think
if you’ve seen
any
van Gogh painting
of nature
or landscape

you’ve seen the full spirit of
what these trains speed past