Home Again, Home Again

By Marilyn Taylor Marilyn Taylor

The children are back, the children are back—

They’ve come to take refuge, exhale and unpack;

The marriage has faltered, the job has gone bad,

Come open the door for them, Mother and Dad.

The city apartment is leaky and cold,

The landlord lascivious, greedy and old—

The mattress is lumpy, the oven’s encrusted,

The freezer, the fan, and the toilet have rusted.

The company caved, the boss went broke,

The job and the love affair, all up in smoke.

The anguish of loneliness comes as a shock—

O heart in the doldrums, O heart in hock.

And so they return with their piles of possessions,

Their terrified cats and their mournful expressions,

Reclaiming the bedrooms they had in their teens,

Clean towels, warm comforter, glass figurines.

Downstairs in the kitchen the father and mother

Don’t say a word, but they look at each other

As down from the hill comes Jill, comes Jack.

The children are back. The children are back.

Poem copyright ©2009 by Marilyn L. Taylor, whose most recent book of poetry is “Going Wrong,” Parallel Press, 2009. Poem reprinted from “Wisconsin Poets Laureate,” Marsh River Editions, 2009, by permission of Marilyn L. Taylor and the publisher.

Biography

Marilyn Taylor attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she earned a BS in mass communications, and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where she earned an MA in linguistics and a PhD in creative writing. She has published eight collections of poetry, most recently Going Wrong (2009) and The Seven Very Liberal Arts (2006). The Wisconsin poet laureate from 2009 to 2010, Taylor also served as the poet laureate . . .

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