Snow White's Prince(ipals)

The window seat was taken but
I took over
           staring out the window

Lights,
a speckled glowing grid
growing farther away and
wider than the memories I've made
          over the past several months

And the soil changes
from sand to silt
to sludge
           to dirt as red

As the stockings hung on
the absent chimneys
waiting
           to be shimmied down

By the jolly old man
who
knows exactly where
           the key is living

And with that he
unlocks
           the imagination.
****************************************************************************

I had been up for approximately 48 hours.  Maybe if didn't go to bed, the next morning would never come and I wouldn't have to leave my "family" I'd come to love, over the past four months.  The people I had seen nearly every day and the places I had frequented and the streets down which I rode (and wondered how I would adjust to riding on the right side again) would all still be there.  Yet I would not. 

And then, after over twelve hours of travel, I hear a voice as familiar, yet haunting, as Will Rogers' himself and I turn around to see my father's face in the body of a fellow traveler.   How did you get though security?  To which he replied, "I never left".  

And so began the next 36 hours of a whirlwind...fast track:  father flew in unexpectedly but expected to be taken care of, sleeping an entire day and waking up thinking that I only slept for mere hours, as the sun slowly set.  I was in Norman, in my own home, in my own bed, but only for mere hours, before heading down to Dallas for the Famidays.

On the first day of Famiday, my mother said to me, Tonight we'll see the faces in the places we will be.

On the second day of Famiday, I said to my mother, It's snowing, can it be??  Come press your nose on the window and see!!!!  

It all happened so fast.  Christmas and family and snow, oh my.  I'm happy to have spent my first week back in Dallas, with family and attempting to settle into a life on which I pressed pause.  Yet it's strange to be back.  It's almost as if I never left.  And then I look at the photos and read back through my journal and look at the faces of my new friends whom I have made over the past short months of my favorite season, which was completely absent and I realize it wasn't the season, but me who was gone.  And now I'm back but gone from the place absent of seasons and I'm almost even more absent-minded.

One door closes and one opens, in the very same building which people use the revolving door.

What will I do now?  Everyone is interested to know, including me.  It is a good time to ask that question, to yourself, as we become just as close to the end as we are to the beginning.

One thing is for sure....do right and do it good, alright?