Originally

• blind toy, holding its paw
• all childhood is an emigration
• your accent wrong
• big boys eating worms and shouting words you dont understand
• anxiety stirred like a loose tooth
• seeing your brother swallow a slug
• tongue shedding its skin like a snake
• skelf of shame
• "red room" - connotes anger about being forced to leave her home country
• "We came from our own country" - "we" shows how it affected all of them - "Our own" assonance - reinforces her sense of belonging in that place
• "Mother singing our fathers name to the turn of the wheels" - mother is optimistic and happy - contrast to speakers emotions
• "bawling" - emphasises their sadness - repetition of home shows childish habit of repeating oneself
• "miles rushed back to the city" - personification - desire to run back home / distance travelled
• "blind toy" - reflects uncertainty of the unknown
• "holding its paw" - emphasises innocence - like child seeking comfort
• "all childhood is an emigration" - childhood compared to major uprooting - change and transitions outwith their control - moving from comfort to uncertainty
• "Some are slow, leaving you standing, resigned, up an avenue where no one you know stays" long sentence - enlongated. shows slow stages of childhood
• "others are sudden" - short sentence - abrupt changes show how fast some changes are
• "Corners, which seem familiar, leading to unimagined, pebble-dashed estates" emphasises feelings of confusion and unfamiliarity - not feeling like she belongs