Goodbye to a Family Home

Homeward bound, a journey I had delayed,

Returning to the family nest, just one last time,

Years unfold, inevitable dismay,

Onwards to my duty, the future chimes.

Men live asleep, as the short years roll by,

Permanence is an illusion of kind,

Bricks and mortar now more like a lie,

A house that became part of a bloodline.

Memories, trinkets boxes and books,

An ecstasy of fumbling in a loft,

A family home recalled in glances and looks,

Covered in forgotten dust I coughed.

In foggy dreams I will revisit,

30 years of life boxed and bagged,

Only when the brave heart can elicit,

Only when the pain dries and scabs.

The home to become someone else's story,

A passing of an heirloom without consent,

Legal bindings, lists, inventories,

It will be only I who knew what it meant.

Standing, a bare kitchen, talking to walls,

As if they can hear and understand,

This was my home, my family, my overhaul,

Goodbye Glebe Lane, huddled in woodland.