By Athena Stairs, April 17, 2025
I remember long ago
When a ten to sixteen growing girl
My little sister and baby bro
The camping trips, neighbors we’d know
My mother’s green thumb garden
Turned from rubbish pile to bounty
Berries climbing long fences
And birds singing in pine breeze
Chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks
And the walnut, fruit, and lemon trees
The 4-H kids looking to me
As I taught them caring husbandry
But no one tells you where you can call home
And so I moved onto high school
And overcame my shyness
My friends were cool, the grades we ruled
And I aimed my sights at college
I ran cross country in the hills
Just up the way from our house
I dreamed of tending to the raptors
Rescued in the canyons
My best friend bicycled like wind
For competing in the olympics
We lay upon our backs and watched
The clouds form shapes as teasing
But no one tells you where you can call home
Right before I turned sixteen
My parents called me back again
My grandma needed tending help
In another town where I’d grown up
And so I left the things I loved
And the family most dear to me
I roamed the golf course greens again
But the swans were gone who raised me
I sought stability as could
And in time I met some new friends
Found my love and we moved on
To better towns by the ocean
But no one tells you where you can call home
Now my kids are all grown up
My mother’s pin upon the shelf
The cats are gone, the night is long
And I worry about my health
I think I’ll get to learn at last
How to create my own music
Would my grandfather be proud
Or would he still look to refuse it
That wonderful amazing man
Saw the classics fading like the land
And as a child I tried to tell him
That life was just evolving
But no one tells your heart to change
When the past is what you’re craving
And no one tells us where we can call home
Yeah no one tells us where we can call home
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