home[sick]ness

you don't know how much you will miss it until it's gone-
like a bad breakup:
you can't stay, but you're not sure you want to leave.

you will forget just how important it was
that the streetlamps dotting the hills looked like stars in the city glare;
you will remember the crossing lines of bridge cable above your head,
the graffiti under overpasses,
and the grate that made you confront the river.

you would never guess how much your ears seek out a few words,
a twisted sound, a turn of phrase,
the gravelly laugh of a place where they're born with smoke in their lungs.