A Home
Home is a complicated place. It brings up mixed emotions and seems to cause our hearts to race. When we were younger, we could only imagine leaving home, spreading our wings, and experiencing life on a grander scale.
But somehow, most of us end up back home. This poem is from a children’s series that I have written about African-Americans going back home to Texas during the era of Jim Crow and segregation. Home is both hard and soft
Artwork by Jo Scott
Home
Where I am seen
And known
Home
Even when a place
Of pain
And shame
We always head
Home
Home is a pot
Of beans and
Ham hocks bubbling
On the stove
Home
Is where telling stories
Never grows old
Home is made up
Of white, tan, brown,
And black
Home is jumping
Over a crack,
So, you don’t break
mama’s back
Home is watermelon
and gumbo, peach cobbler
and ice cream
Home is Juneteenth,
Baseball, and beaches
Home is the place
You always think
Of leaving
Then you find
Yourself there
Again
Right where you
Started
Home