Song

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
       To stay at home is best.

 

Weary and homesick and distressed,
They wander east, they wander west,
And are baffled and beaten and blown about
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;
       To stay at home is best.

 

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;
The bird is safest in its nest;
O’er all that flutter their wings and fly
A hawk is hovering in the sky;
       To stay at home is best.

 

                       ***

 

this came in my box today. 

 

it fits for harry dean stanton. he feared dying.

 

i see it in his eyes on film.

 

he wanted to stay at home.

 

i think about how we carve 

 

space with divisions.

 

we are devised

 

we succumb 

 

to pressure 

 

distant wars 

city blocks

of lost connections

we are were.

 

we were taught 

 

to eat the world

 

and go home. some of us

 

never get home.

 

we get eaten up on the way.

 

the hawk in the sky 

 

has been replaced

 

by a phantom

 

drone in my mind.

 

i know it's out there

 

waiting for me

 

a step away-

 

a step out from home-

 

with so many steps to 

 

go.