Goodbye

Goodbye …

… to our home of many decades

a suit well-worn, with holes and patches:

appliance breakdowns, faucet drips,

gutters with detaching drainpipes,

entropy at work on stucco;

familiar flaws of a dear friend;

… to labors done for need and pleasure:

raking catkins, acorns, leaves

mowing lawn, trimming hedges

shoveling New England snowfall

and the street-plows’ piled-up gifts;

… to the home our children knew, as they grew

from second year to college age,

returning for the holidays,

to celebrate together always;

… to summer dinners on the deck

shaded from the sun’s strong rays, with

nearby tree-growth dressed in green;

tending grill, filled glass in hand,

life at leisure, time passed slowly;

… to the home where we were hosts to

family from across the ocean,

who had welcomed our frequent visits,

ever since we found each other;

… to distant close-by younger neighbors

houses that we call old names of

long-departed owner-friends:

Crosby, Olrich, Eastman and Sotir;

… to adjacent neighbors’ racket:

power mowing, whacking weeds,

garden service blowing noise;

… to familiar walking, running routes

all well-known by time and distance;

the wooded park with hilly paths

with dogs and owners joined by leash

though we’re allowed to go there too.

Goodbye, goodbye, on to the New …

– Peter Schmidt (June 2022)

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