Footprints

Yellow siding

Spotted with the footprints

Left behind by ivy

Flower beds

Begonias

Geraniums

Concrete steps

Screen door

Usually broken

I may never actually take that walk again

But I

Obviously don’t have to

I would think

It could have been the same

For Pete Seeger

And

We shall overcome

He could have stopped performing it years ago

He knew that walk all too well

He could have inhabited only new songs

But he didn’t

If you watched him perform it over the last decade

You watched him gradually retreat from it

Cede it to fellow musicians  

To the audience

Imploring others to step in where his faltering voice was leaving off

He needed help up the driveway

Up the steps

But he never stopped going inside

I have

Because

A house isn’t a song

It can be neatly severed from what was

Is

Always waiting just inside the door

To the right

Past the basement stairs

Through the kitchen

Past

Formica

Checkered Wallpaper

Dark Lacquered cabinets

Greens

Browns

Yellows

In the three attached light-filled and professionally decorated

Squares

On eleven acres

And

Deep

In my heart

For
Your footprints

Are spotted across more than just the siding

And you aren't finished leaving them