Submissions for Month of the Military Child by Yokosuka homeschoolers.

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Complicated Song

I once departed for a new land

I feared the strict Japanese hand

The language I tried to learn

Yet it was totemo muzukashi to discern

All of this is like being on the desolate planet Mars

Everything is different here even the ice cream bars

Yet my love for fishing is still kindled strong

Even in a foreign nation the ocean is a complicated song

Now I feel a loss that I have to leave kono country

Where will I inhabit next?

Will the words be complex?

I look at the sun setting behind the majestic shiroi mountain

My life is like wind-blown spray from a fountain

I am a traveled pilgrim sent to a new country

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Home in Two Places

Like a sakana in the ocean trying to find a way

How can I return home when the island is calling?

That is why I have no words to say

Having to leave Nihon is appalling…

I am a Hawaii boy through and through; nothing can change that

But the Land of the Rising Sun is where it’s at

The current pulls me along with it; I am taken out to sea

I have a solid ikari, but is this where I should be?

Could home be in two places?

I feel like a polar opposite with two faces

Two tokoros entwined in hitobito history

My homeland is still a mystery

Two islands I call my home,

My destiny is Hawaii-Nippon

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What is Change?

Someone who knows what change really is

Dealing with the plane-that’s the first quiz

I left the sky and saw my sis

I hugged my aunt and forgot the word “miss”

Many more planes and tickets

Thailand, Korea, and Saipan

With so many places to visit

We decided on the wondrous Japan

Why did my parents stop my opportunities?

They said, “alfuras fi almandrasat alnamzilia” (opportunities at home)

Haqiqiun (true), I have found asdiqao (friends) and hiwayatan (hobbies)

But mainly, the schooling is calmer - like me!

The page closes, but the idea is

That somebody who knows ma hu altaghyir haqana (what change truly is)

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We Are Moving Again

We are moving again

I have to pretend

I am so perfectly fine

This pain is all mine

We were in Hawaii now Nihon

I will have to call my friends on the phone

I will miss things here that I know

I will carry this burden wherever I go

Maemuki is what I hope to be

At least I know I’m not hitori

I am so thankful to Japan

Arigato and a hui hou

We are moving again

This wound will mend

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Konbining futbol

My name is Sao like Sao Paolo, Brazil

Espanol peacock feathers are a memory of Spain

Konbining is my hobby, 7-11 is my favorite chain

Espana didn’t have any

Will the next place be ready?

My adventures are like a book

Comida favorita is not singular, look

Bocadillo, torta, gyro, shawarma, ramen

Familia visits and it feels like Navidad; it isn’t

common

People are portable which makes it easier to eat

with them

My futbal has seen it all, it feels like a gem

Buying jerseys from continent to continent takes time

Strangers become amigos in time

Pero once again I must start again

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Time After Time

Moving, it just keeps coming.

Time after time, after time.

It’s moving, trieste but exciting.

Meeting nuevo amigos, leaving on a dime.

Traveling, seeing new people by smelling new food.

Arriving, It’s tricky but emocionante, the clock

chimes.

It’s time to move again, I take off my hood.

That’s what traveling is like, it’s time.

I say farewell to Espana but good greetings to

Japan.

It’s as hard as scoring a million goals sometimes.

At other times It’s as easy as biting into a piece of

salmon.

The hardest part is leaving.

Leaving friends, familia and neighbors.

Pero It’s not really all that bad in the end.

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Moving

I wake up to a knock knock knock.

It’s my makua who want to talk.

They say we move Thursday afternoon.

I say why so soon

I say Why do we have to move it will give me the blues

My makua say don’t have the blues or be confused  

your Ohana is here with you

Through and through

But why am I moving and not my friends

I don’t want my friendships to end

Mai kopo it will be fine we had a good run

And even a lot of fun

So it’s ok to be sad it isn’t a crime

But don’t let that stop you from having a good time

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Floating

When I arrived at my new home,

My excitement rose and fell like sea foam.

As I tasted my first ramen meal,

I had to remind myself this was real.

There was no time to dally with so much to see --

From castles to the Sakura to Japanese style tea.

I couldn’t wait to try a kimono and some traditional shoes,

Or bask in the sweet, salty scent of the ocean blues.

The people so respectful and polite,

Always saying konichiwa and arigato to my delight.

Yet, I am a kumo always floating and never being seen,

My yearning for friends always being keen.

For friends constantly drift apart,

But One -- God, my Tomodachi -- from the start.

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Soul Roots

I was two when we left home

The place I was born

It was my primero roam

I was not torn

I was five when we next moved

I didn’t know what was happening

My understanding had not been proved

I had yet to feel the saddening

Like the blue birds we flew

Leaving the nest we once knew

California became mi casa

New neighbors, new amiga

Now I know what it’s like to move

The next chapter awaits, let’s see what I can prove!

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Remembrance

Through the waves have since born me away,

And flowering boughs have turned to grey,

Still my mind returns to a far-off glen,

Where two children called to kalokairi’s wren.

For us the flowers panemrphi seemed to smile

The butterflies, the hours would while.

Only the Neráida’s path did we take

But Time’s hard ways we could not forsake.

So chronia has passed us by,

How fast, did childhood seem to fly.

Still, I turn to bygone memory,

Longing once more, those good times to see

Always, have I thought of thee,

Dear friend, do you ever think of me?

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Unfair

A kind of love that’s always there

that you never need to earn, and friendships that will last forever

Ich wünschte, es konnte fur immer

sometimes life can just be unfair

Wow, we will be best friends forever! You think.

But friends can disappear before you blink

A kind of love that’s always there

that you never need to earn, and friendships that will last forever

Ich wünschte, es konnte fur immer

sometimes life can just be unfair

Why are we moving for the fifth time? I’d rather be here than there.

A kind of love that’s always there

that you never need to earn, and friendships that will last forever

Vielleicht ist das Leben nicht so unfair…

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No Place is Home

Uselessly pulled along by the moon

no choice of its own -

Like a military child thrust into tide and monsoon

no place is home, kein Land zum wohnen

Wolken morphed by the wind in

Faulty forecast fur du

Shaped by repeated hardship hidden

Left wondering what’s true

My head is spinning like the Earth, without intent

so slow you don’t feel it until -

Sprechen das Deployed? Dependent?

You’re gone, still

I’ve been asked when I’m going to see the world;

This is where the world sees me.

Yokosuka Naval Base

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