Finding home

Home. A word with so many different meanings,

Each, bringing with it a multitude of feelings.

Stress, anger, sadness too,

Smiles filled with joy; tell me, what does it mean to you?

For me, it was a forest, with a small creek running through,

The vast fields on either side and a sky so blue.

An old dirt road, a night sky filled with stars,

The dreams of adventure and travelling far.

Chasing fireflies on those long summer nights,

A big fire roaring, what a beautiful sight.

I still stop some days and close my eyes,

To let all the memories flow of those days gone by

My home was a yellow house that lay down a dirt road,

something I imagined from tales of old.

Surrounded by fields that grew tall every year,

Until the tractors came down and, the next day, they were clear.

Home is an old bridge that crosses a brook,

It leads to some berries if you know where to look.

It's a place out in the country where each day you'll see,

So many animals' just wandering free.

It wasn't just a place; it was the people as well,

The times we spent together, the stories we would tell.

All the adventures we had when we were just kids,

The storms we would face and the places we hid.

The meals at the table are still vivid in mind,

When nan would start baking, how I wish we could travel through time.

The old treehouse that sat in the old apple tree,

A day filled with games on that old TV.

The fear of the basement mixed with all of those dares,

When we'd turn off the light and then race for the stairs.

To go back to the days where my family would gather and play,

What I wouldn't give to have just one more day.

Running free through those fields and swimming once again in that brook,

If I could only go back, even for just one more look.

But the vast fields are disappearing as new people move in,

Though I know better, it still seems like a sin.

The dirt road is still there, the old bridge as well,

Yet, if a brook is still there, one cannot tell.

For time keeps on moving as we grow each day,

And when the time comes, we find a new place to stay.

The time has long since passed where I moved away,

From the vast countryside to the city one day.

The small brook is gone, now replaced by a lake,

The forest beside us may be small: yet still filled with adventures to take.

There are lots of new sounds, and new animals too,

Each day we're discovering something new.

I know what I called home it was not just a place,

It was the people around, the memories we'd make.

A home is our past, our present, and future,

Where we start and end this life of adventure.

My home is a place always with me, a place never apart,

As home, to me, it is a place in my heart.

I will take one more walk down that old dirt road,

As I welcome a new home and say goodbye to the old.

Where I once had the fields, tall buildings now stand,

No more brook to go swimming; it's now a beach with some sand.

No more dirt road to crunch beneath my feet,

My home, for now, is among the paved city streets.