This week’s poem, Anne Cyr’s “Homecoming,” transports us into a child’s joyous greeting of a parent’s return from work at the end of the day. I love this poem’s immersive imperative verbs; its attention to scents, sounds, and action; and its vividly embodied sense of loving nostalgia.

Cyr is a retired Maine educator who has had several poems, essays and short stories published in various local magazines, newspapers and anthologies. She is grateful that both of her parents were talented writers and for all her writing teachers at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

Homecoming
By Anne Cyr

Jump up and snag
that half piece of gum
from his shirt pocket.

Inhale the mixture
of spearmint, pipe tobacco,
and a day at the office.

Cajole him into wrestling
on the living room rug.
Face each other

on hands and knees.
Slap palms on carpet
and count: One, two, three.

Lunge.

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Homecoming,” copyright 2023 by Anne Cyr, appears by permission of the author.

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