But now that we’ve decided, breathed into a plan
No cell service.
No one home at the house across the street.
Not so sure we should wander to the trailers down the hill
No service up the hill under the power lines either.
A quick decision as I hear the truck rounding the bend
To stick out a thumb and point at the phone and get a ride
With the nicest of men
To the apple store that no does not sell computers.
Where there’s a phone and someone coming to shuttle us
And the nicest of young men who found home here
In the mountains where his grandfather lives
Who had moved to L.A. to learn home was not there
Where people gawked and wondered
How he survived out there back East in the woods
Where you needed to chop your own wood and grow your own food.
No that was not survival he realized, this was home.
Survival was what he needed there in the city.
He pulls the rocking chair out onto the porch and a spot in the sun.
I had no idea how tired I was until I sat and stopped.
The old Chevy pulls in and the old man steps out
Thinks I’m sitting out here selling apples
Instead of a weary hiker off the trail
I wish I felt like walking again the old man says as he hobbles away
Now I can barely stand up.
Looking down the road listening for the shuttle
Wondering where the road leads
And when the planet started to die
Of what can no longer be saved
And now needs to be grieved
Of what we can’t stop doing and what we now must
And home.
Navigating Through Change 