Coming Home

Prompt: "Draw a very simple map of a place you have recently been or a place you would like to go to. Name two places on the map. Then, write a poem about the map, the place, the names."

In my right hand

a motherland not my own

but I call her Mother

Santa Maria, I am coming for you

Vague memories passed down

a foggy mountainside

Still, they’re mine

A cobblestone Vila where I bought my first diary

A countryside drive to Sao Pedro where

my Father knew his childhood

The eldest sisters told me of washboards

the rarity of shoes

I didn’t get to touch the white paint

or wet my feet on the earth

where the river had dried

I’ve been there,  yet not

there

Your coastlines bow a curtsy

a knowing Sao Lourenco smile

You remember me, sweet embracing

Earth where my father now

rests

having come full circle

but not really home

In my left hand

a paradise

elusive and all-knowing

No boat goes there

No wings, no paths to lead on

A shining haven

shuddering in the glory

of the ugliest unknown

Lit by temporary storytellers

their lessons as

navigators

We have come to get lost

somehow finding our way back

Coming full circle,

coming home

Ilha do Sol - Island of the Sun

10/1/12