The red door greeted me,
starkly displayed against the brown siding.
Years had gone by,
but the house looked the same,
felt the same.
The musty smell enveloped me
as I walked through the doorway,
but it was a good musty,
like the smell of a book
from a used bookstore.
It felt like a hug from an
old friend,
one you haven’t seen in a while
but could immediately engage in
breathless conversations with.
It had been years,
years of being away
because of reasons, out of my control
and I thought time would stand still,
at least for a little while longer.
But life continued,
changing with the seasons;
cheating us out of future memories.
…
A giant flamingo stood tall
directly in front of me,
a totem to her
and the years of jokes,
smiles and Sunday brunches.
In memory,
I hear the sound of sizzling bacon,
smell bagels on the counter,
and taste the sour lemonade that
sweetened our souls.
It was nice to be back,
even though I was barely holding
it together,
wearing the bravest face
I could.
But,
She laid there,
in peaceful content,
accepting her fate,
and sharing the good word
that we should too.
I did,
well,
I tried my best.
I know life is not linear,
it’s an inevitable cycle
that we follow
round and round,
like a carousel,
in a park.
She shared stories
of life that I never heard before,
and I learned more about her soul
in those scant hours
than in the years of staying there.
It’s sort of funny that way,
life, I mean.
We don’t always see the threads
weaving to connect us
in different ways, to different people
She remains a force of nature,
no matter the degrees of separation.
So It Goes 