CALL ME BELOVED

All together now, out the doors
and into our seats – huddle together
brushing shoulders in vestibules,
listen to security think out loud
how much he wishes he were home,
share warmth because we have to
because we want to because it’s cold
and we don’t have to be.

All together now – single file
up the stairs down the stairs
through the hallway, past the man
who could be my father (if he were Spanish),
small stature with swift skillful hands,
the same nervous eyes eager to please and
eager to prove, dark shirt and black apron
standing still, an empty swatch of color
cut out of the salmon-pink wall, while
dollar-store decorations mirror your mind
and confess, dangling from the ceiling –
their heart your heart just not in it, at all.

All together now, huddle together –
our hearts are tired but we’ve always thrown them in
gleefully willfully and I think we always will –
we’re all here, aren’t we? Ambling back to this state
like Joyce wrote and longed for Ireland, strangers
in a strange land gently called back
to what we called home, once.

All together now – we roll home,
road humming beneath our tires.
The sky has turned dark.
I curl into my seat – watching
the painted lines racing away.

2015 Poem-A-Week 07: February 12 – February 18