We return home, 
something other than our previous selves.
Others ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
Hah!  I wish I knew; if I did, it could be fixed.
Part of me left behind from where I came.
Those others say, “Come on, get over yourself.” 
No longer part of a team of one.
Who now am I?
Others who have not walked in my shoes
express, “You need to get out of your own way.
You have lost.”
 
But now what? I ponder!
“Is this the key to unlocking the anxiety 
that plagues, the distress within,
to find a place to belong,
to be part of one of them?
Who are they?”
Not just me, here alone.
Welcome home.

A Familiar Face
By Lenny Ellis
 —Madison, WI
 
As I walked
through the park,
I looked up in a tree
and saw a bird
looking at me.
 
“Oh, it’s you,” he said.
“Come on up
and feed me.”
 
So I did.