Leaving home and coming home
Parents of grown-up-and-gone children often find that they aren't quite as "gone" as they thought. Marilyn L Taylor's poem doesn't tell us how their parents feel when the "children" come back. We are left to guess the tone of voice in which the final line should be read.
- What do you think?
- Have you ever had this experience - either as a parent or a grown-up child? What was it like?
Home Again, Home Again
The children are back, the children are back—
They’ve come to take refuge, exhale and unpack;
The marriage has faltered, the job has gone bad,
Come open the door for them, Mother and Dad.
The city apartment is leaky and cold,
The landlord lascivious, greedy and old—
The mattress is lumpy, the oven’s encrusted,
The freezer, the fan, and the toilet have rusted.
The company caved, the boss went broke,
The job and the love affair, all up in smoke.
The anguish of loneliness comes as a shock—
O heart in the doldrums, O heart in hock.
And so they return with their piles of possessions,
Their terrified cats and their mournful expressions,
Reclaiming the bedrooms they had in their teens,
Clean towels, warm comforter, glass figurines.
Downstairs in the kitchen the father and mother
Don’t say a word, but they look at each other
As down from the hill comes Jill, comes Jack.
The children are back. The children are back.
Poem copyright ©2009 by Marilyn L. Taylor, whose most recent book of poetry is “Going Wrong,” Parallel Press, 2009. Poem reprinted from “Wisconsin Poets Laureate,” Marsh River Editions, 2009, by permission of Marilyn L. Taylor and the publisher.
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" captures a longing for home which anyone - motherless or not - might feel at times.
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" captures a longing for home which anyone - motherless or not - might feel at times.
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