So familiar on my tongue, so many times a comfort to hear
Thoughts of frozen blankets and glowing stones
so, so long ago.
Your scent, soft sights and constant sounds
with me in heart, in mind. My life
seems to be slowly melting,
frozen corners caving into gray waters.
Heavy clouds dropping soft tears
after my absence of just over four years.
Cascades of lies, new life and irrevocable pain.
Sheets of oblivion.
Tell me, show me, help me get back,
‘cause my heart was ripped from my chest and locked away with yours.
Ohio, help me come home.

Somehow, though I know my feet can take me there,
I know
I am unable to be with you again.
We've changed, with weathered souls
and worn out physic.
My eyes have seen a new light, gained sight
Unknown to past, the one we knew.
Your grasses my bed, your branches my helping hand.
I use to lie in the field beside my house and gaze at the stars.
Sprinting clouds, circling moons, frozen pictures.
I would take flight, remember particular nights.
You understood when I didn't because your soil already had the knowledge of buried secrets.
One winter night, your snow collected my tears.
We cried together it seemed and shared a soul.
Your howling wind and frozen showers
obscuring, numbing, for a moment,
and now, reminiscing alone,
Ohio…
Bring me home.

You witnessed my first exhalation of baby breath,
rejoiced when I came to you,
just as my mothers before me.
A blood-line running as deep as your tree roots.
My young eyes witnessed you grow as you witnessed my life.
Time passing by
as leaves grew then later abandoned their branches
Leaving your wood bare and there,
your trees slept.
But we continued on, together.
Our last winter together.
You held me, safe, cocooned in a mound of snow.
I slept with you, and though you were cold,
our hearts were as hot as the stoves
and the fires in our homes.
Bright, radiant, that’s what you are,
though most of your days are spent in rain and gloom,
I could never forget and never stop missing you.
Ohio, you've brought me hope.
You are my home.
So, Ohio, bring me home.