Homecoming 2009
Even as we leave
We’re coming home
That’s the way we bend, strain
Our prevailing wind
Our magnetic pole and guiding star
Lismore
Time can play with us but
Our direction is true - unvaried
We are at home here.
Not a Liosach I hear!
A settler perhaps, a blow in, foreign, alien,
A refugee, asylum seeker, economic migrant,
Different, not one of us, not from round here?
Yet ,when I first set foot on this
sliver of land hurled
who knows when from the deep
towards the stars
I said – not – I could make my home here
but - this is my home
it took a few steps and fewer seconds
it wasn’t a big deal
I just knew I could be
at home
here
Don’t get me wrong
It’s not easy being home
We shop, we load, we cart,
We unload, we cart, we drag
Soaked and buffeted
Frozen and exhausted
It’s not a bog of satisfaction
Home is no picture joined by dots
no jolly melodic song
fulfilment guaranteed
Lismore is a story
a collection of rocks, water, song
millions of years in the making
But I have time to study
the lie and the lore of the land
To sense what shaped this mystery
To play my part
A lot has gone on
Centuries of communities once called
aliens, asylum seekers, economic migrants,
are now Liosaich
And their oppressors -
conquering, possessing, clearing-
embraced
Does a baby know she is home
Or does she learn day by day
To see her place
To know where she belongs
And wherever that is
must be home.
