Returning to An Unremembered Original Home
This is another poem that took more time than expected but less time than the last one partially on account of being a bit shorter. This is a poem about revisiting a hometown you don’t really remember but did live in at one point. Originally posted this back in August 2022.
Returning To An Unremembered Original Home
By: A.X. Bueno
Your original neighborhood
It’s been a long while but you’re feeling good
Visiting family in a place that you couldn’t remember but feel like you should
Ultimately though you can’t because you left so long ago and at such a young age
Yet you continue to look for landmarks and places to gauge
As if you could actually remember what it was like being here back then
At a time when you couldn’t even talk so it doesn’t really feel like you’re back again
Instead it feels like you’re experiencing a place with a faint familiarity for the first time
When you actually meet up with your family that’s here you embrace
Catching up with each other and trying not to burn too much daylight as you go
You drive around for a bit trying to figure out where you’re going to go next
A decision is made to go to a nice restaurant where you can have some food and reconnect
It’s new and a pretty good place with food that you all share
After eating you walk around some more and ask about the neighborhood and how it compares
To the past and in the brief time when you lived here before
It all gives you an appreciation for this place to finally come here and pass by the stores
Along with the park and the streets, naturally familiar though not to you, other places as well
You all decide to go for ice cream with its location from the park being parallel
So you all get your chosen flavors and then take a couple of pictures too
Enjoying the delicious, cold treat from a pretty good place for it while continuing to pass through
Both more streets and the park savoring this family time, for how much of it is left
Some people you haven’t met before but that some of your family knows come over as you rest
Well more just sit and relax as you finish off your ice cream before it melts and also say hi
After that and more chatting you burn through a few more minutes maybe more
And before you know it becomes time for bittersweet farewells
There’s only so long you can stay because it won’t be a short trip back home
However this has trip was great for what it has quelled
The desire to see family and a place you’ve only ever heard about and never really known
You’re happy that you actually have memories there now, memories of your own
You’ll probably be back someday, you know this place will wait and be there as before
You’re happy to have returned after all these years and hope to return at least a few times more