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Las Vegas, sitting outside watching my car being cleaned
Vaguely worried about sunburn in February
Realizing I love this place and can’t imagine not living here

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Birmingham UK, fresh off the plane
Walking my dog Miles around a hotel car park
In the rain and cold
Worried about what I have done to my life and if I can live here

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Leaving Aberdeen Scotland not long after my 18th birthday
Desperate for the bright lights of London and beyond
Knowing I’ll never be back to this backward town

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Living back in Aberdeen
No longer seen through the adolescent sunshine gloss of American Television
Still flawed, but resonating with the historic and working-class architecture
Life balancing with a softer and more empathetic society
Granite and health care to sooth my middle age
My first mail, my new doctor wanting a poop sample to test for cancer

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Los Angeles, newly arrived in a paradise of sunshine, amenities, and a new American life
My first mail, a flyer for savings on all the things I can buy
An adolescent television life complete with convertible and swimming pool
DVD players and randomly weird furniture

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Living with my Mum after 36 years away
Michael! Your dinner’s ready!
Mum, your dinner’s ready
Echoes and offsets
I used to moisturize to protect against the sun
Now I moisturize to protect against the cold and wind

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Learning to navigate London
Tube trains and free papers
A to Zs and the fear of the unknown
Place names that I only know from the riots on the news

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Alone in a Los Angeles apartment realizing I’m in a different world
Nothing works how I imagined or saw on TV
This is not Knight Rider or CHiPs or The A-Team
I know how to find bad guys
But I have no idea how to buy furniture or groceries

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Mum did you brush your teeth?
Mum, go to your bed
Mum, let me cut that up for you
Mum, I love you – scratch that
We don’t say that, but mean it every day

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I love you
Said but do I mean it?
To the woman in the movie theatre
Who never thought I would

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I Love you…

_{Collage Image made by with
An Image by Kay-Co from Pixabay
An Image by Gilbert Cruz from Pixabay
An Image by Janno Nivergall from Pixabay
And images by the author}