Home From Away

A Poem by dovetailer

Some people and things and places we love to the end and beyond...

Home From Away

They brought him home today
to the homestead
one last time...
to where he was born...
his beginning place
he always loved...
how fitting that he should
finish here where he began
a lifetime ago

Who'd blame him...really
if they watched the fading daylight
paint the Blue Ridge foothills
russet-gold with alpenglow...
each day they look
a different kind of beautiful
depending on the weather...
a crescent moon and a billion stars
give the night
a subtle silver glow...
in subdued morning's pre-dawn light
a ten - point stag
ambles across the lawn
hoof prints defile virgin frost
that melts away
in simmering sunlight
Really…who'd blame him

for wanting to be a part of all this?

Turkey buzzards...
carrion crow cousins...
spread their fingered wings
soar concentrically...
silhouette against dying daylight
sensing... seeking
the dead and the dying...
how apt that today
they...
their vigil keep
alert...aloft...
then whirl...swirl away
death wish denied
by family-strewn ashes
of the prodigal son
to the wind...

There's not much to us, really
when it's all said and done...
if we wring out the water
and the wind
and the pretense played...
five pounds of dust...
all that's left at the end
of a life lived...
of wishes and dreams...
the sum total of all ones parts,
all ones wisdom,
all ones achievements,
content to be contents
of a two-quart container

The wind wafts him away,
his final wish honored...
one life ended
no appeals...
somewhere
an exhausted mother
gives one final push
maternal urges surge
a newborn cries...
another life begins