Where has it all gone?

Old friends no longer nearby

How could I feel I’ve let you down?

Years away since I’ve been home

Echoing words of freedoms once felt

Streams of endless spring mornings

Summers spent swinging in the sun

Before the embrace died young

In that moment I would’ve stayed forever

Without a shudder of coldness

Before the bird’s song faded out

Coming back now isn’t the same

Where is my home?

I no longer recognise faces

Ones I’ve know since I was a kid

Emptied my heart, once fuelled with joy

A childhood, a time of freedom

Washed away by years apart

Right back to what I wish I never left

How the last years I would undo

The sun has changed it’s position

Now winds echo words of grief

A regretful tune swaddles what’s left

A childhood now a distant dream

LLK.

___

This is intended to reflect my experience of having lived in one country for most of my life but then moving away for years, and how being away for that long changes how I experienced a return to my home country, a pleace where I’ve always felt I belonged more. But so much time away created a wedge between what I remember my childhood being like and how much it has changed since then, since I left. Creating a somberness and nostalgia that is somewhat sadder but also joyful in an odd way.