November 16, 2010

reunion

Two months had passed between them – while she navigated
the maps inside her thick atlas, her house had stayed put,
welcoming a new set of footsteps. In her absence, dinners were created,
showers taken, Sunday mornings lolled in by the couple taking root
in their new city. Re-entering these rooms, she felt a twinge of estrangement, 
the walls dismissing her with the faint shrug of a lover having found affection 
elsewhere. She saw it would take more than a party or a fresh arrangement
of fall flowers to woo it back. And yet, her heart had changed direction,
too. She didn’t need this same enclosure and retreat. A freedom
housed her now, a frameless certainty that who she was - not where - was home.