Ten Glimpses of Home

1. that safe place

of solace and solitude

where all my things are laid

 

2. that place I couldn’t enter,

every door barred or locked

or pinned with signs,

“Keep Out”

 

3. that place where family smiled,

polite conversation, knives and

forks held just so,

no elbows on the table

 

4. that place full people,

noise and smoke

where only half the bed

belonged to me

 

5. that place I found

each time I set down my bags,

unpacked shampoo, toothbrush,

my box of earrings

 

6. that place my son created

when he unfurled his soft spine

and opened his palms to the world

 

7. that place that didn’t matter

until I stood with him

at the river’s edge

“This is the best world,” he said

 

8. that place I resurrected,

painted,  hammered, nailed and

insisted on

 

9. that place where he sprawls beside me,

tells me how to survive

a zombie invasion

and how having a girlfriend is lame

 

10. that place I love

but could leave tomorrow,

sun on my elbow,

tears in the wind

– published in Being Unquiet Anthology by Piquant Press, 2011