Going Home

This poem reminds me of leaving home, of always looking back while trying to move forward. Whether in LA or Iowa, I'm missing somebody.

Poem: "Girder" by Nan Cohen, from Rope Bridge. © Cherry Grove Collection.

Girder

The simplest of bridges, a promise
that you will go forward,
that you can come back.
So you cross over.
It says you can come back.
So you go forward.
But even if you come back
then you must go forward.
I am always either going back
or coming forward. There is always
something I have to carry,
something I leave behind.
I am a figure in a logic problem,
standing on one shorewith the things I cannot leave,
looking across at what I cannot have.