Homecoming Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Homecoming

I had traveled long and far before getting home,
and it was a beautiful spring day when I arrived.
The air in the flat smelt of neglect, the dust of
memories covered family pictures. “those where
the days my love.” A phrase from a recent song
murmured on my lips. I half turned by the door
wanted to run away again only this time I had
nowhere to go my journey over.

Agonizing silence a never ending Om, I got to do
something, opened the blinds to the door out to
the terrace and up from a flowerpot of dry soil…
and two small eggs flew a pigeon. Wonder and
new hope. If a meek bird could find a home here
so could I; of course for now the terrace was out
of bound. Slowly, ghosts of past misery vanished
as ancient dust danced in a halo of sunlight.
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