There is something quite frightening about going home in 3days. I think it is because I am looking forward to it so much. Kentucky is one of those good and comfortable places, where you can be you all by yourself or with the world, either way, there's joy: Because it's Kentucky and Kentucky is God's country. I think it has to do with the place, as a whole. Its comfort and goodness can be devastating, especially to a young thang like myself. Damn state, calls its folk back till they come back. And here I am, going back. Again. First time I left, it was for California. I kissed the ground and spoke praise to the stars my first night back in that country.
I think it is important for young people, young adult people to remember that their parent's home doesn't have to be theirs as well. I remind myself that my parents settled in Kentucky to love each other loudly and to raise a family. They have successfully done both. So well in fact, that their house is still very much my own. I remind myself, however, that this is just the holidays, this is the time to go back but that one day, going back will begin from my home, in some other part of God's country (not just His Kentucky). And I will keep reminding myself of such a fact because so I don't get sucked into Kentucky like so many folk I know, so I keep my thangs movin' in a direction all my own. . .
Throwback piece from October '05:
Homecoming
I am nervous.
I am 20 stories above
snapshots of you
in my head and ready
to belly-up myself,
my harvested complexion
yielding to your nature.
But I am fighting the wind
with punches
as if it can feel my blows,
as if I have strength enough
to knock
the wind out the wind. Ha.
Nervous talk.
Because we both changed
since I left.
We fell forward into change.
You call it season.
