then: one yesterday

© “Early Rising” by H. Walker

 

“While you sleep, mountains are moving deep within your psyche.”
– Walter Mosley

I remember what it looked like before they “built this all up”
as both my mother and father regularly say of just about everything

when I come home, I look around to see what’s still there and remember
what isn’t there; trying to guess/estimate when new buildings rose and

when old businesses I frequented closed-up shop or became new ventures
that I intentionally avoid no matter how “good the calamari is” my friends

find reasons to run to just because. The native Chicagoan in me finds it too
much to go for, but the skyline view I knew from years ago has changed

and rising early this hour, this moment, and looking towards the sun
I know I am as different as the rising; more different than the open spaces

that used to be makeshift parking lots and construction storage sites and the
sight of waking before anyone else and seeing this city, my home awake

before goodbyes to the sky and elevator rides down to ground floors
straightening disheveled hair in mirrored boxes moving to street-levels

I remember you, then, too… we are changed, but different; and now share

coming home and leaving, sometimes, is the reward for moving away
and the reason for coming back makes it just that much sweeter…