It's Been Forever

It’s been forever now
since I have been
where I am from
I’ve visited all the places I've known
the lakes and creek and roads
slept in the houses
that held my youth and dreams
but it’s been forever now
since I have been
where I am from
I wonder, sometimes
if it still exists on a map
A small solid place
that inside
seemed as large as the world
the walls thick and proof
against sound and cold
the fire in the grate
making the air smell
like a holiday
And company
there always was
whether I knew them well or not
liked them some, none or a lot
One had only to turn the corner
or climb the stair
to find that there was
someone else there
I’m not sure what happened to all that
one day in the midst of the same as all
there came a storm
nothing grand of godlike
a typical summer storm
with refreshing wind
just strong enough
to fell the tree
that had grown
outside the window
where it could always be seen
I can’t help but think
if I had listened not charged ahead  
in my own plans
You and i would be WE
before the we of now
alas, choices chose other
still i surmise
I would have only thought
for a moment
what was such deep thought and not pushed it aside
that thought took my hand
and led me outside
To see beauty
I had always known
and seen in my dreams
eventually
I looked inside and discovered
all I thought green and alive
was not
I didn’t look in the hole where the roots of the strong
tree had been
and discover a cavern of secrets
I did not
I didn’t do any of those things
I went outside
and looked within
at the tree I had always known  
I could see the sap running from the
heart to the scars
and I thought that thought
touched me deepest of all
And that thought
took me by the hand
and we started to walk
Through the fields and into the forest
I had always found so comforting
WE walked
hands never parting
Now today
I have so few genuine friends
and even less moments
of interaction beyond you  
And I find
in the heat of the day
in the chill of night
I have my fill
more then I have known before
I realize now
although it has taken me years
had I not trekked the road of precarious
I would not
have found YOU
here, at all
and I cannot imagine life without You