I Return Poem by Jason Kelly

As dawn breaks the restful night away I wake to the day I have longed for
Now packed and standing ready my chariot awaits
to carry me back through the lush green valleys of home,
across the mountains of Appalachia down the eastern slopes toward the blue hues of the Atlantic,
as the miles trickle away, the layers of yesterday are removed,
the rush, the fake smiles, the masses of the questions, the reasoning to find the solution,
the wading through the troubles of the mortal mind
400 layers now striped away, the phone no longer rings, just a vibrating hum,
the reality begins to arrive
I return today to all the times of before that have meant the world to me
all the memories now flow of a thousand yesterdays of laughter in the wind along the eastern shore, the giggles of life,
550 layers now removed the air now laden heavy with a salty musk and the blue jays have faded to white gulls that capture the sunlight across their wings in the clouds above
within the span of mere hours the layers have been removed the weight of the baggage of life lifted and my metamorphous is complete
like a butterfly she emerges upon the sand of her shore
the sand warming her soul,
the water washing away the pains of all the days since she last strolled to the edge of the sea,
the water now in its quite retreat, reveals the shells of life, that has provided so much beauty and clarifying the true colors of creation
of the wonderment of life itself, of a beginning, a middle and a ending.
No layers remain as the sun slips past the western horizon and pink hues collapse into the darken waters of the far reaching Atlantic,
As moonlight now beckons the hush of night the soft repetitions of the waves against the shore,
Where ocean waves take me, the axiom of reason displaces me.
For it is within the simplicity of these sands my memories of life and its reasoning was created,
Here with each child and their individual inquisitive minds brought cause to the questions of life,
My life to do what I could for as long as I can
to Share the knowledge god had given me, and the earned knowledge I had received through my own struggles,
to make the next generations world better than my own.
I return today


(2010)