A hard earned lesson:
We'd like things to last
But we have to accept
The past is the past.
It was good to see old friends
And join in the catch up game
But even after being away a year
Their gossip was still the same.
And, then the chat seemed to fade
Because what did I have to say
About strangers they didn't know
From a world a million miles away.
All these friends there to greet me
And it seemed rather strange
No matter how hard they tried
I was now just on the fringe.
With the older people in the village
The distance was so much more
Many had seen active service
Having served in the last war:
I served in a Europe
United and new,
They saw those things
From a very different view.
Still a child of the village,
That could never be taken away,
But from now on I'd just be
A visitor temporarily come to stay.
My leave passed pleasantly by
Maybe with a little agony and grief
And I think we all said our goodbyes
With just a shade of mutual relief.
The next time I came back
All the awkwardness had gone:
We'd all made our adjustments
Learned to let things move on.
