Home Sick

I'm missing home on this cold winter day

And I'd like to return more than words can say

But alas I cannot now and not ever

Though that bond and desire nothing can sever

For the place that I knew, while still there indeed

Much of what is is not what I need

For the dearest of homes so close to my heart

Is no longer the place where my life found its start

It is said that you can never go home again

Perhaps because home is not a where but a when

Not a place on a map to which you can drive

But faces and memories which can not revive

No revival of the days, or hours, or weeks

Only revisiting every low valley, and highest of peaks

A reunion with laughter and the tears I have shed

With loved ones not forsaken, though long they are dead

Oh, the streets are still there in that once-beloved place

though I can still walk them, for they are still there in space

I cannot return home, for that is forbidden

In a time out of mind, from my sight it is hidden.

But perhaps then again home is not far away

I can return to that place whenever I may

For home is in my heart, always part of me

When I find myself longing for that home, I can see

In my voice, in my tears, in the smile on my face

The sounds of generations and the appearance of that place

I wear hometown pride in my smile, in my eyes

Whether I am in that place, or under foreign skies.