A Poem by Elise t’Hoot from Hate All Around

Tug of the Leash

 

I never knew the loneliest word was home

Home

That’s where you are and where I feel I’ll never be again

What do you think and do you want this wandering wreck to come home?

Home?

I go to bed and miss your touch

Do you miss me all that much?

I feel undressed without your kiss,

I’m wrapped in plastic, apart from what’s true

I want to go home,

to home and you

I never knew the loneliest word was home

Home

Like a dog tied out to post stuck in the yard, straining at the end of her chain

aching to chase the rabbits, to smell the smells,

the unbending limit of her well-defined circle puts her under a spell

Escape, run free, it fills her head

But what about that tree, where the good man came to rattle the food bowl,

fill the water, to check the collar?

He’d rub my ears with such strong hands, with such suave words

Was that home?

I never knew there was a word so lonely as home

How can I claim I’ll change my ways if you let me back to stay

to raise the kids, to make the cakes and search the sky until my poor heart breaks

Darling, does that mean I can’t come home?

I’m a trillion miles from you

How empty does it echo, that warm and sweet idea,

of toys underfoot and books on the shelves

of the shelter and the permanence of home?

Mate or master what does it matter?

I cry for you

and Home