Home is the place where...

 
 

Sound 

My brother burps at the dinner table.
My father serenades my mother.
My little brother cries from his crib.

 Taste 

No meat on Friday.
Honey-dipped donuts on Sunday morning if we were good at church.
Sauce sandwiches after school was the best snack.

 Smell 

I knew my mother loved me when I’d come home from school and smell apple pie in the oven.
Our clothes smelled like fresh air from hanging on the clothesline.
My father’s hair smelled like Brylcreem.

Touch 

I had a lumpy blue pillow that I slept with for years.
I loved to wear my father’s flannel shirts to school.
We felt the itch of angel hair falling from our Christmas tree.

 See 

Our house was small and square, but was next door to the town park and pool.
The weeping willow tree in the front yard blocked the sky.
My father in his favorite red reclining chair.

When I Close My Eyes…

…and think of home
it is always the old house –
square, shingled
beside the orange merry go round
weeping willow blocks the sun
my father in his favorite recliner
smelling like Brylcreem and apple pie.

I can still hear him
serenading my mother,
 

“Ramona, how I love to hear you calling.”

 while my little brother
screams from his crib.
These sounds familiar
even all these years later.
They make me smile
feel taken care of –

“Ramona, when day is done
you’ll hear my call.”

like the sauce sandwiches
my mother would make
when I’d come home from school –
the house smelling like home
my father’s flannel shirt
feeling like forever.

“I dread the dawn when I awake
to find you gone.” 

by Elizabeth Thomas

 
 

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