Home

 

Somewhere

In a different time zone

A father stands in the middle of a train station

Shuffling his eyes around

To finally see his daughter

Who has not been home in a time that feels like forever stamped on

 

He imagines,

He would fling his arms as wide as the oceans doors

In time for summer rains

 

It then dawns on him

The way dew does grass in the morning

“Have I taught her all that she needs to know?”

 

A boy, with the sort of smug that reeks of

Young ignorance walks by and reminds him of a story his father once told him

 

“A shepherd boy, in search of a treasure

Trekked the mountains of Spain to only find himself back

At the place he first began, home”

 

His daughter, is coming home

 

They will once again sit under the shade of the tree in the backyard

And not have enough fingers and toes to recount the seasons it has stood

Like a faithful friend, it has always stayed

 

It’s raised branches, lifting themselves to the sky

As if in search of a divine being to ask of its design

“Why me?

Why does the wind waltz around me but I never get to see it?

Why, do my leaves leave to die just so I could live?”

 

Like this father

Who still holds his daughters dreams like a hopeful hand

Filled with seeds for harvest

Even the birds will come and behold and dance around the sky

The way the moon and the sun tango to dusk and dawn

The stars, even with their heathen hearts will have something to constellate about

Something to die for

 

He can finally sleep now

His daughter is coming back home now

 

The mornings

Will soon be filled with songs perched on lips that haven’t stopped dripping

Of the assurance that love still lives

Even, in the crevices of our hurts

 

He will tell her, as he has always told her

“You are nothing short of amazing

Sing your song baby

Let the words of your caged bird courage take flight”

 

But I have forgotten the words to the song father

My melody

Has become a symphony with one violin out of tune

I haven’t a clue of north from south on the compass you gave me when I

First lost my way

 

I’ve allowed the dogs to feast upon my flesh

Leaving my bones

A shrine of a desperate heart aching to be touched by “too soon”

Lovers who could not stand it when it poured

 

Buried the truth in the backyard of my garden

And for that

FORGIVE ME

 

Said my prayers in the silence of dimming lights

And skylines beckoning me to collapse in their wake

FORGIVE ME

 

 

My mother’s hand me downs of reject hang like Picasso would on my walls

So I never really look around to see the hunger of parched lands

FORGIVE ME

 

To see, their fullness when it rains

And the rainbows that tap us on our shoulders to remind us as they whisper

“History has not forgotten about you”

FORGIVE ME

 

Most days

I imagine the tree in our backyard and wish for it

Wish it could call out my name

To come and gaze in the stars eyes

And remind them that even with their heathen hearts

They are a redemption song sung before a revolution

The still have something to die for

 

I am remembering

The story of the shepherd boy

Of treasure, of home

 

And if this is the house we built

My Father’s arms, a roof over my head

 

 

In this moment

I am remembering the first time

He laid his eyes on me and said

“For I am convinced that nothing will ever separate me from you”

 

You are home now

Go tell the planets as they orbit the sun, the son

Has found His reason to shine again…