"It's about home"---from "Munich," a film by Steven Spielberg
Janet Phelan
on park benches
and under life-guard stations
eluding the local cops
with their vagrancy statutes
in tow
crashing on the occasional couch
and scrounging change
for that rare hotel room
(What a vacation
to sleep undisturbed!)
After years in exile
I managed to rent
a place
A place
is not a home
Home is defined
by both boundaries
and sentiment
My place
is as fluid
as the stream
that runs by it
In the evenings
I find evidence
of passage
through my place
a metal coffee cup
an empty medicine bottle
an entire shelf
emptied out
while I was at market
I have stepped into a river
that is carrying me away
I cannot hold in my arms
for even one moment
hearth/home fires/
gated entry/belonging
I translate
in the voacabulary of loss
My hands pass through yours
as we appear to meet
Janet C. Phelan
copyright 2007