This thesis is a collection of poems that explore the tension between the stark simplicity of domestic spaces and situations, and the richness and complexity that they belie. The poems attempt to inhabit and enact the transit between public and private space; a main focus of the manuscript is the concept of neighbourhood. The central piece in this collection is a long poem called Osteogenesis, which uses multiple narrative and reflective strands to consider the intricate connections between life and death in the context of a medical student and her roommate, as well as the ecosystem that develops around a deceased whale. As a means of uncovering the strange and extraordinary in the everyday, this collection is also concerned with childhood and the magical realism that often makes up children's understanding of the world around them.