January 2008, I moved to the Lower Mainland to live with roommates, leaving my family behind in Prince George. Back then, the poems I wrote that were not about the writing life were usually about being homesick (or “people-sick” might be more accurate; I think I would have breezed right through if everyone had just moved to the Lower Mainland with me). This poem is for that transition between one home and the next:

Cry

Softly when our roads divide,

Hands apart, we stand, we go to

Family’s house and place my own,

Calling both names “home.”

A safe goodbye before the flight;

The only force opposed is

That of change,

Hurt, helping lives to

In sunlight times, it

Barely dawns,

But when the Sandman’s

Sprinkling yawns,

I wish for them so far away

Miss me little, little more,

Don’t miss too much.