Concrete Concept

On the drive back to my house, I wondered

if I was going home or somewhere else;

We had this conversation yesterday,

my mother and I, talking about home;

how grandma and grandpa always found it

easier to consider home someplace

else – somewhere other than here, where we are.

Nothing concrete, no brick and mortar or

wood-slat structure: roof, four-walls, and a floor.

Home as a concept, a memory held

in the heart, where your loved ones keep living.

In this way, they never had to leave it.

Perhaps poverty, hard times, drove them here

to this idea of holding home close,

near enough to touch, feel, not close enough

to fear losing – always within, with us.

And I knew, wherever I was going,

I would be home.

~ Siobhan, 9/21/2021