(There Are Ways) to Come Home
When you return home, one year to the day that you left us, one year to the day that you decided that you should go elsewhere and the day that it rained, the day that we asked for something, the day that a man destroyed himself in front of a grocery store and the day there were fireworks and the day we saw icebergs floating down the river, remember to look to the east to remember why you left in the first place. Don't try to measure how much the trees have grown; there won't be any.
When you return home, one year to the day that you left us, you will wonder if you can do it all over again. You will wonder how you can knock on the same doors again and talk to the same shop keepers again, and you will look east to the factories and the smoke clouds that they make and your lungs will hurt and you will immediately want to leave again, to go away like you did one year before.
When you return home, one year to the day that you left us, you will look for changes. You will look for new street signs, you will look for children, you will look for vineyards. We took everything with us when you left, one year ago to the day, we took the seeds and signposts out of the ground and we followed you. A few stayed behind to turn the lights off. So when you return home, one year from the day that you left, please send for us and we will come back to turn the city back on.
When you return home, one year to the day that you left us, you will wonder if you can do it all over again. You will wonder how you can knock on the same doors again and talk to the same shop keepers again, and you will look east to the factories and the smoke clouds that they make and your lungs will hurt and you will immediately want to leave again, to go away like you did one year before.
When you return home, one year to the day that you left us, you will look for changes. You will look for new street signs, you will look for children, you will look for vineyards. We took everything with us when you left, one year ago to the day, we took the seeds and signposts out of the ground and we followed you. A few stayed behind to turn the lights off. So when you return home, one year from the day that you left, please send for us and we will come back to turn the city back on.
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Author's Note
Cosimo de Medici
Other stories by Jason Lee Norman
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I love this! It is short, but it feels longer. I especially love: "Don't try to measure how much the trees have grown..."
Short but feels longer- that is a great compliment!
Thank you.
This is beautiful and heady, I love it! The ending is perfect. Nice!
The long unspooling beginning is fluid and lyrical. The overall construction, almost chant-like made it mesmirizing through to the end. Nice work!
This is really well done. I agree with the strong rhythm/musicality. If it were my piece i would have ended it the line before the last, but that is just an opinion. Anyway, it's really lovely, Jason.
Thank you so much.
Rythmic and hypnotic. The repetition of the first line in each paragraph had me rocking back and forth.
Really well done.
Lovely. Almost a poem with the built-in meter. Keeps drawing me back. Peace *
Rhythmic, as others have suggested, and the images are outstanding. Well done!
I like this very much and I wouldn't change it.
I agree with the above comments - the pace is fabulous. An evocative flash.
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What I especially love about this, besides its incantatory rhythm - very magisterial - is its seeming disconnect to literal meaning, at least some of the time. And the images are over-the-top marvelous. I could read a book of it, a library. -- Q
Nice words, especially love: ...you will look for children, you will look for vineyards. We took everything with us when you left, one year ago to the day, we took the seeds and signposts out of the ground and we followed you.
Just love the combo of "children and vineyards" The whole feeling of this piece is wonderful
Thank you.