14 Mar 2021
You could be miles away
From everything you know
Speaking a foreign language
Wearing unfamiliar clothes
You’ve been here before
The place where the people you care about
Are waiting for you
laundry out to dry
out the side door the cats are asking for scraps
the stove burns the lowest flame of blue
in the back yard a building’s going up
and the windows are closed against the dust
books that smell of mold (it’s not really mold, it’s cheap paper denigrating)
I’ve always felt that home was in people not places
But places have a way of sneaking up on you
And later walking in the forest we saw a sign that read
Two years ago a leopard was spotted here
When you go into town, everyone looks at you
This ain’t your home, you can’t disappear here
Sympathy won’t feed you