Home Sweet Home- revised

The house and I remain in the middle of the block

And a little bit off

 the roadside surrounded by a grassy yard and worn

brick

steps leading up to the heart of the home and

Hedged by a row of dwarf trees and

I vacuum

 a dark blue carpet speckled red and white and stained

 with a dog and kids- now gone-

and I brush by a couch remembering many nights of a family frozen

 to the 42 inch flat screen, a product of a certain father’s heavy grasp

of the newest technology and I pace

 towards a door leading to the warmth

of the home, the beloved kitchen I stood around at its stone

stove and a crayon stained

table with its five chairs scattered

around it and where I baked

an autumn pumpkin pie, its scent suffocating

 and a hallway going deeper into the depths

 of a wooden

study and a dining room and a rainbow bathroom, the rubber duck from my bath falling

to the bottom

of the tub

 and the living room I decorated with its familiar

tan curtains and flowered patterned couch with vines

of blue and green and red and an ancient

brick fireplace I lugged wood to, roaring

with flames where many cold

nights were passed

And many Christmases spent around

the tree, colorful presents I wrapped

taking over

 most of the room and the stockings laying along the railing,

leading up to the sleepy woods

 of the home where the children slept, curled and tucked

up against the cold winter chill and little mud tracks

 leading a trail into the bathroom and

Towels dirty

with the house’s spring cleaning and allergy medicine burying

the cabinet behind the mirror and the home is once again,

 home sweet home.