"HOME" - A POEM BY CALEB

Home

By Caleb Gross

Banana trees 
Glowing in the mid-day sun
Slowly wave their wide leaves
Over my head as my shoes squish 
The jelly-like mud
Small meringa trees line the path -
So unlike the corn fields behind my past home -

I sprint on
Dodging the mangoes lying dead on the path -
None of those in Indiana -
The green painted concrete of the medical clinic
A church two stories tall behind a fence
A soccer field spread out next to it
Cows grazing
All these blur together

I pass another small house and a larger building
A grassy field with only a few trees in it
The gravel underneath my feet makes a kirch kirch sound
The smell of creole sauce and chicken make my stomach roar
The Haitian sun burns my neck 
Like a furnace
The plants lining the road prick my ankles

At last
I come to a swing set and bench
A play area
Not unlike the one I had in Indiana
I complete my run
And as I stumble through the front door I call out,
"I'm home"