Another Time, Another Place. [Poems and Prose]

Home

I am a home,

the foundation of which is built

from trust. My rafters are mercy;

my joists are tight and secure in their love.

My roof is like a guardian's embrace,

protecting, sheltering; my bricks are

the small comforts, layer upon layer.

Children's laughter rings through my corridors;

in the evening, the perfume of broth and comfort

wafts through my halls.

Generations of tiny feet

have tread my worn wood floor,

have softened my hard, sharp edges.

The secrets within my walls

are mine to keep.

You shall not know them,

nor would I reveal them to you.

The tears of my inhabitants,

shed in the darkest times,

in the darkest hours of the night,

in the darkest corners of my being,

form the glue that binds me together.

I protect them

just as they maintain me,

for one cannot survive

without the other.

***