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04-05 The Way it Was Before
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DailyPoetryProject Center, start, stagger,
wander, winding through the world;
a path of stops and detours.
Wait,
what’s that over there?
Left the car,
it rolled away,
had to chase it down
once the wonder of distraction ceased,
got back in,
couldn’t find the road.
It all became so overgrown.
Now what to do??
The baby’s coming!
Hurry up!
I don’t care which direction!
Just move!
The engine’s fine,
point toward the lights.
This city moves so differently,
a weird familiarity
that changes suddenly
to strange. It’s fascinating
how the people seem so like
the ones we’ve known from home,
the buildings somehow shuffled,
street names all replaced,
or relocated cleverly.
Never mind all of that!
Let’s go!
Just find a doctor!
Quick!
So helpful and kind,
sweet smiles and eyes.
If we can’t catch up again
surely we could find a place to stay
among this curious collection
of our friends with unknown names
who act just differently enough,
I know they’re not the same.
Wait here,
fill out paperwork.
Sign,
and out the door.
A boy at last!
He looks so calm and peaceful.
Ready to go home.
Forget the road, there’s a place for sale,
so much like the one we rode
to get to on our journey,
but now we’ve landed here.
Years go past.
Descendants fall around the tree;
apples of fathers’ eyes.
An emptiness inside the family
is noticed by each member,
all at different times.
Always shrugged off, explained away.
Eventually to be patched up
with leaky gauze.
If only dreams could be remembered
and compared.
They’d know they share
inherited visions of
the ancient highway.
Still it lays unused,
eroding slowly under seasons changing.
Yet,
there hangs a map that could be used
to retrace carefully the path
to the place where wisdom reigns,
if only one were brave enough to stand
upon the table shouting,
“No! I will not settle!
Yes! I will mettle
with the order of this place!”
Then, there, the fog will all erase,
and light will shine over the place
where they must go to learn the ways
of deeper meaning.
