What made you take this road
home?

Why did you leave
for home
so late?

Did you want to see
that rosy moon come up as you pulled in
to the driveway?

Did you mean to hum
that song
as you stumbled along,

stopping at the bottom of the stairs
to gather up this day’s last strength
and climb them, with the last light
of a routinely sad day around you?

Were you actively glad
to slide into bed
at the end of it all,

having done
the chores for the morning’s rituals
and saying then to yourself that you
wish you had known that song’s title
or even a few of the longer lines of verse
before drifting into this darkness?

Did you awaken
first thing,
at first light,

snippets of a different song inside you,
beginning once again by rote
rituals, once vibrant,
that have grown stale?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T