All the sound
dies down
and before you know,
it’s over
it’s over and you’re going home
A different soul in the same skin and bone they know
Purified by the flames you walked through
Then out into the blue
So you embark on a vessel
of a ribcage of metal
Inside the belly of the heartless beast
That flies and takes you far back east
To the olive trees and bumblebees
So you set down your bags
Turn the keys
hoping there’s something waiting in the halls
And it’s been so long
Can she remember your face
will she listen to you recount the years
And hold your face and wipe away the tears
Will she wait like Penelope
Not knowing if you come back
and wait in the empty
As you recount each and every battle
As your eyes rest on the familiar pictures on the mantle
You come back and you are changed,
in the rhythm of your heart and the blood in your veins
But you look at her and it’s the same
You find peace from the things you cannot unsee in the things that cannot age
And its the same smile through wrinkles on her face
And all that distance , all that time, didn’t seem so much anymore
Because after years of her picture in your helmet
The fear that she’d look at you with resentment
seems to melt away
Because after years of running
you are back home
you are safe.