homecoming
by 1976 my family had crossed the country twice thanks to the U.S. Navy I grew up two thousand miles away from my birthplace in my siblings’ birthplace, San Diego. I was three when we moved into the house on Patriot Street, a gentle slope of stucco tract homes nestled on the edge of a canyon filled with military families many drawn like mine from the rural, Black South who traded years, freedom, and certainty for a ticket to the world brought back piecemeal to the house: silk pillows, wicker chairs, shot glasses, knick-knacks evidence and explanation for months of separation and static-y ship-to-shore calls that made homecoming such a joy

(c) 2002