VIEWS FROM HERE

VIEW FROM HERE  
 
(Reflections after first month in a new flat after previously living in family home.)  
 
"At the end of a hard day it feels good to come home to a place you know - a place where you can kick off your shoes, run around in your bathrobe and not worry about what anybody thinks."
 
(From my Bible reading notes guide "Word For Today" for Monday 17 July 2017.)
 
I revel in having my ‘own place’,  
Master at last of my own space;  
Above me here only Lord God,  
To whom much prayer went Heavenward  
From those who rooted for my move.  
(Does this fact God’s existence prove?)  
 
All life here is experiment  
In living thus independent,  
Free to put my stamp on the ground  
That round the back is to be found,  
Introducing new plants to grow,  
Making places for bees to go.  
Indoors make changes sufficient  
To make utilities efficient.  
 
Single man, own home, car and phone –  
Description I can truly own  
Without the slightest word of lies  
If for dates I should advertise;  
Eligible, available,  
With a life sustainable.  
 
Since I have parted homes with Mum,  
Bit more sensuous I’ve become,  
Free to go naked within doors  
(When there’s no disturbance to cause  
Me to need answer the door) –  
I oft sleep in PJs no more!  
I’ve bought myself male underwear  
That fits more closely what’s in there.  
 
And with Mum out of the window,  
Opposite sex give warmer glow;  
I can savour and deepen the chat,  
Behind me is this country flat  
Whose phone number I may pass on,  
Or a friendly invitation  
To visit (with good intention).  
 
Compared to most I’ve got here late  
(Weeks before birthday 58),  
As things suffered in early life  
Worked against leaving home for wife,  
But I’m sure this was God’s right time,  
Moving in early summertime,  
Backed up by many long term prayers  
That friends and others sent Upstairs.  
 
The new home faces different ways  
To the home of my former days,  
So from its front I see the sun  
Rising, and from back setting done.  
My views of Shropshire hills provide  
From a horizon that is wide.  
 
I’ll be interested to see  
What next 12 months may do for me  
And what relationships may come  
In life after living with Mum –  
At work, in the community,  
And even romantically?  
Signs my eyes ‘see’ aren’t of the pound*  
But of love, what of it might be found.  
 
(If you’re wondering where is Mum,  
At 84 she has now come  
To take a sheltered bungalow  
Elsewhere in the village, below  
The hill where my flat’s estate lie,  
Not out of mind but out of eye  
She’s near for her grown kids to see  
But far enough to allow me  
The chance to make a life of my own,  
Communicado on my phone.)  
 
*”pound signs” – North American/Australasian readers may read  this as “dollar signs” – “seeing pound signs” being an expression for anticipated money making from a particular activity.