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Some day you'll go back there - where you came from.
Some day the whirling will stop, you'll go back home.
When autumn comes round you'll put up the lights -
a hundred small teardrop flames burning bright.
So from place to place. From one home to the next
till the loop's closed and fates have nothing more left.
Yet now that you're back where you started out from
something about it doesn't quite feel like home.
The trees have grown gnarled beside the straight, wide road.
Some things have toppled. Some spaces have narrowed.
The main landmarks of the city still stand.
But you've changed. So has the lie of the land.
For there's no coming back to rekindle flames,
no Diwali night will ever be the same.
Once the hometown's left it stops being home,
there's no coming back to where you start out from.
Shubho Kalipujo/Happy Diwali to you and yours if you are celebrating, and happy autumn/spring if you're not.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteShubh Diwali, Nilanjana-ben! YAM xx
Yamini MacLean, I read your blog but can find no way to comment!
DeleteTo you and yours too - love and light and peace.
DeleteHappy Diwali to you Nilanjana. When I used to go back to Detroit, it was never the same as it had been when I was living there, growing up there. My old neighborhood was full of empty buildings, bricks stripped from houses. Now, I only visit via google earth and sometimes walk around the old streets. Roofs falling in, more houses gone. Sad.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kristin. The more it changes the more it remains the same...mine is different too, some of it good but most of it rather saddening...One should not expect to feel the same way about any place if there's been a long gap. Treat everything like a fresh relocation, I find that works for me on a personal level. Visiting via Google is a nifty idea!
DeleteI've never had a hometown, so no idea what that's like.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very nomad-ish! :)
DeleteHappy Diwali.
ReplyDeleteI am back in my home town (and have been for a number of years). It is the same. It is very different. And which dominates flows with the wind.
Thank you. Not just the hometown, the returnee is different too. Less malleable, more angular, less able to fit seamlessly into the shapes of spaces...what can one do?
DeleteHi Nila - home at times has been wonderful ... now I remember a few ... life is life - and as EC mentions flows with the wind (and rain for us) at the moment. With thoughts to you and your family - Hilary
ReplyDeleteThank you, Hilary. Home is a blessing whether different or same. To have it, to be able to come back to it and moan about how this or that isn't up to scratch...many millions don't have that privilege, I'm acutely aware of that..
DeleteI am “home” in PA now. Your poem captures the atmosphere. Trees have grown. Dad has shrunk. My mother and some old friends have passed. Sameness. Differences. Dig deeper for the light.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you in all seasons.
Thank you. Most sincerely reciprocated.
DeleteYour post was a standout! Your writing is top-notch. Keep up the excellent work and write more!
ReplyDelete