Going Home
Going Home
I went home again, at last
just after the mid March winter blast,
as many years had slipped into the past
lost too often to both time and memory aghast.
Roads no longer seemed that familiar
sight and scene made me quiver
so much had changed, empty and dissimilar.
The old haunts of my time long gone
torn down and replaced for a song
erased and today unknown, so wrong.
Ah yes, some things, some markings remain
with distinctly different looks and names.
I guess nothing ever stays the same.
Perhaps the old saying is more than true
and there is no going back
for every me and you
in search of what we miss or lacked.
Even the old homestead looks bland
one of the few memories that still stand,
remodeled, repainted, reshaped by newer hands.
So swift the years have raced by,
autumn, winter, spring, summer skies
moved like picture shows with us aside.
Some places go unrecognized
trees removed with nothing left to hide
only strip malls to fill the wavy tide.
The buildings long displaced
covered by graffiti and defaced
with views of the traffic stop go race.
How often have we bid goodbye
to the youthful playgrounds of our lives;
and as the veil is slowly lifted
we finally find
how blessed we were and gifted.
All the places of those last fifty, sixty, seventy years
once brought both happiness and tears
is but a memory well marked in time right here
within the heart loved and cheered.
If I close my eyes, I can still see
my grandmother standing beneath the tall Christmas tree
at the foot of my home’s steps waiting
waiting patiently, for me.
Though many years have passed
and the scenes change far too fast,
the memories are a lasting gain
are the rewards for which I aimed
in having seen the world as smaller
taking in its lessons learned by scholars;
home is what we most treasure
and it is the ultimate goal by which
our lives are measured.
Copyright © DM Babbit | Year Posted 2017
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