AS IT WAS LONG AGO

Going up my stairs
late at night, the sounds of the day
have finally faded and silenced.
It is just as it was long ago—there weren’t
really any absolutions, but there was the feeling
that everything would
be all right. And then
on the radio fades in: “For now: goodbye,
friend. Goodbye…”
Sometimes I would take
the long way home.

(8 September 2006)