Traveling Home by David Milley

Driving back from Batsto, we took the long way home,
the road running through places where your youth began.
"So many houses that were here," you say, "are gone."
I reply, "So many new ones now that weren't here then."

So, another road story begins. You first took me down
this road the year we met, and I joined you on that day
when you, so proud, took me to your parents' home.
Another time, we stopped in every bar along the way.

That field you tilled, now grown in oak. The store
where friends met, shuttered. I know every memory,
can recite each, line by line, the map of our adventure.
I reach across the car and rest my hand upon your knee.

After forty years together, traveling home with you,
every road's familiar, and every road is new.



Writing since the 1970s, David Milley's work has appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Christopher Street, and Bay Windows. David lives in New Jersey with his husband of four decades, Warren, who's worked as farmer, woodcutter, nurseryman, auctioneer, beekeeper, and cook. Nowadays, Warren gardens and keeps honeybees; David walks and writes.