Can’t Go Home Again

I was excited,

when you invited me to your home
It was the very place we learned, 

we would never be alone
But when I arrived you were barely recognizable, 

something had changed within
You wasn’t the person that I remembered, 

although you wore her skin

I looked harder, I found glimpses 

of what I had left behind
But the deeper I went I realized 

they were just memories in my mind
I stopped to get to know you, 

and the person you had become
I couldn’t wait to share with you 

the journey I had begun

But conversation stuck in a loop 

going round and round again
It was then I realized 

that my best friend was dead.

I denied it with ever fiber,

 fought it with all my might
Believed I could breathe in life again,

 if I could just get you to light
but the darkness of your home,

the cobwebs in your head
You gave up humanity,

and hold poison close instead

As you slowly start to decompose, 

I wrestle with leaving you here
I credit you for my healing, 

and it’s something I hold dear.
We were soldiers in a battle,

 I had thought we had won the war
We were standing in the clear 

but you wasn’t behind me anymore
That is why I came back to get you,

 not accepting a casualty
I’ve come back to fight for you

and to heal you like you did me

As you try to persuade me, 

to take up residence in your house
I realized if I stay too long, 

I would never make it out
I know that you are really gone, 

many tears I am going to cry
But it’s time for me to go now, 

I must tell you goodbye

By Etha Walters
11/11/11

Back to Blank

by: Etha Walters

To say goodbye to yesterday seems a little late
Its out the door and it can’t hear you cry
But echoes of the slamming door come rushing down the hall
and they fade into the walls as they pass by

Can’t rewind and start again or find the place to begin
what time is it when all you can stand is still
color fades to black and white and pails compared to empty nights
on easel canvas waits till brush is filled

Peeling pages back to blank
another ship that has sank
looking somewhere for the strength
to sail again

another battle not been won
another song that wont be sung
so I am peeling all the pages back to blank

Pen in hand I go to write once upon a time
but words get stuck somewhere between the lines
Picked up my paint brush all the colors fade away

I guess all I can do is sit and wait

Wounds have to heal so I can move
there is nothing left for me to lose
Because I took all of those pages back to blank