No hero’s welcome.
No grand parade.
Is waiting for the door left ajar.
Only its creaking sound
breaks the silence. And the breathing air
of some familiar spirits. I am once-
a familiar visitor in this house.
All that remains are lifeless forms
who have patiently waited here
Am I? Like a hermit crab
occupying this once solitary shell.
Called to embrace the shadows again.
Recapturing the lost and faded
photographs and memories
of the distant past. Forgive me.
For I came back not to rebuild
your imperiously alienating walls
I have suffered to endure. The magnanimity
of this abode, on which I failed
to contain the tension. Conquering
the many days and the years living
in the fear that haunted me. As I
have walked away to seek my own.
Yesterday will be torn into relevant bits
and pieces. As mementos and snapshots
I will keep them at bay. Never again would
memories imprison me into its walls
like ancient ghosts wailing, begging
to bring them back to their immortality.
I will clear away the cobwebs.
I will swept away the dust, making room
on these lonely spaces. I came back.
To cleanse this home of its sad sequences.
I will peel away the white sheets
that has covered the flaws, the lapses,
and the many inconsistencies in our lives-
we are ashamed to show. But instead,
we kept hidden for so long.
I will open the windows, taking in
the sunshine and the country air
and hope- as its constant companion.
Savoring the remaining days
choosing to be happy. A pilgrim
transforming this house into a habitation.
The dappled lightness of my being.
Solitude Amidst the Maddening Crowd
