Homecoming (Poem)

Homecoming

for Al

Two hundred people

make a place

Where you start out.

When you don't come

from somewhere else

Dirt and rock can be enough.

      ~

Yesterday, you

went home, you said.

You kicked up clumps

when no one looked, imagining

the lying-in neat-like, cared for

You beside your wife

Your and her remains

together mixed with family gone

there now

and yet to come.

      ~ 

A cousin's funeral took you back,

you said. She was 90

And suffered her dementia.

      ~

A plot of family land

makes place

For peace of mind.

Untidied stones calling out

parents      aunts and

uncles   cousins     husbands

and their loved ones

Count for more than memories

Of who they were

when you stood young.

      ~

To be buried on the land 

is to trace the lines of one

to still another

Relate the sister to the brother,

the 12 on her side

A number on your own indivisible.

      ~

A century can make or 

break a place, build it up or

Level it.

Who's gone can't hold together

what love leaves out   brings in   lets go.

      ~

A place can get a hold of you, or not

Mince the sadness   refigure grief

weed out goodbyes    fill in

the family circle.

I'll take my place, you said I'm thankful.

Copyright © 2010 Maureen E. Doallas. All Rights Reserved.