
©2018 by Jack A. Urquhart
Here you come ‘round again
it’s five years now
since you took your leave
and still these parceled posts
arrive in the present tense
mementos of you come home again
in no particular order:
The screaming child inconsolable
in the crowded restaurant
the young man beneath a road-worn cap
alone with a steaming bowl of phở
Your voice sounds with the midnight owl
calling for faraway home
You rise and shine with the quickening moon
are reborn with each shivering blizzard
that breaks upon an early lilac spring
You walk again in solitary footsteps
stealing away in the soft wet snow
You are the last unopened package
beneath the glittering spruce
the empty place at the festive table
You are the toughest hardest nut to crack
the firstborn and the first to go
You are the prodigal son come home again
bearing gifts in loving memory
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About jaurquhart
Jack Andrew Urquhart was born in the American South. Following undergraduate work at the University of Florida, Gainesville, he taught in Florida's public schools. He earned a Master of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was the winner of the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Award for Fiction (1991). His work has appeared online at Clapboard House Literary Journal, Crazyhorse Literary Journal, and Standards: The International Journal of Multicultural Studies. He is the author of So They Say, a collection of self-contained, inter-connected stories and the short story, They Say You Can Stop Yourself Breathing. Formerly a writing instructor at the University of Colorado’s Writing Program, Mr. Urquhart was, until 2010, a senior analyst for the Judicial Branch of California. He resides in Washington State.