Surrender Dorothy

Gathered off of the shelf which holds the surviving
treasures from a well worn childhood
there is a patina of love and tears
and comforted fears
on each of these objects.

I don’t have to remind you,
the children who counted the days
until the movie would make it’s once a year,
showing on the big box in the living room,
which it was your job to get up and turn the channels on…

I don’t have to see your heads nod to know that secretly
in the middle of the family room
with the lights out
and the popcorn almost gone…

that there are very few of you
who can admit honestly
to having actually watched
anything but the first five seconds
of the scene
with those horrifying flying monkeys.

Repeat after me…
There’s no place like home…