Making Adjustments

A hard earned lesson: We’d like things to last But we have to accept The past is the past. It was good to see old friends And join in the catch up game But even after being away a year Their gossip was still the same. And, then the chat seemed to fade Because what did I have to say About strangers they didn’t know From a world a million miles away. All these friends there to greet me And it seemed rather strange No matter how hard they tried I was now just on the fringe. With the older people in the village The distance was so much more Many had seen active service Having served in the last war: I served in a Europe United and new, They saw those things From a very different view. Still a child of the village, That could never be taken away, But from now on I’d just be A visitor temporarily come to stay. My leave passed pleasantly by Maybe with a little agony and grief And I think we all said our goodbyes With just a shade of mutual relief. The next time I came back All the awkwardness had gone: We’d all made our adjustments Learned to let things move on.