She was short of breath......

as they finally reached the top of the mountain....
Hmmm....
Haifa at dusk !
Spectacular !
She felt the tears welling up immediately....
Ohhh....
The memories she had stored in the back of her mind and heart....
the memories of Israel...
HER Israel....
Those long sultry nights spent hanging with the 'chevra'...(the 'gang')
on the streets of the city...
the TIME cigarettes....the Maccabee beers....
the steam.....
how it literally wafted up from the fiery-hot tar of the streets....
ahhhh.....
What she wouldn't give to be back there,,,,,back THEN....
just one more time...
She was startled from her sublime moment of rapture.....
as he tapped her on the shoulder...
He had brought her....of all things....
a MACCABEE BEER,,,,
She smiled....chuckled....
kissed him full on the lips....
and guzzled the beer.....
Perhaps things really did remain the same after all...

She sat very still....

on the white sofa....
looking at the cacophony of blues reflected so beautifully in the water and in the sky.....
looking at the way that the violet blue of her summer skirt
contrasted with the flat white leather of the sofa.....
thinking about the strange and monumentally profound events which had taken place
over the last month or so......
She had "gone home"......
I mean.....REALLY GONE HOME.....
She had Severed some of the truly destructive ties from the past......
and Ironically, she had cemented them at the same time.....
She had researched the ALIENS who had presumably landed in her back yard,,,
and astonishingly........
 she had become CONVINCED that they were REALLY THERE after all!!!
She had told long standing ENEMIES where to SHOVE IT......
and at the same time.....
 she had endeared herself and apologized to the ones whom she'd never let in....
For she realized NOW that it was all just a game....
a game of "HE SAID / SHE SAID".....
a game of THRONES....
Ultimately, WINNING was just another layer of SOUL BUILDNG.....
Well....

They decided to meet at that same, old diner....

the one where they'd met so many times before....
Two years had gone by...
without a word spoken between them......
One had to actually WADE through the
veritable GALLONS of water under the bridge...

She sensed immediately that things had changed...
that her old friend no longer held that indescribable, magical quality which had once been so
conspicuous and delightful to behold.....
Nope...
in its place was DULLNESS....age perhaps....
The shine had indeed fallen off of the apple...so to speak.....
To the extent that one could literally have seen it (the shine) sliding down beneath the red and green
exterior....
There was a PUDDLE of LIQUID SHINE lying there on the diner floor....
"Ahhhh",,,,,,she thought with no small measure of disappointment.......
"So it goes".....

Can we ever REALLY go back home ?

Oh, sure....
We can happily delude ourselves into thinking....
that 'all will be just fine' when we MAGNANIMOUSLY re-enter the picture....
And although, on a certain level, this is absolutely so......
it would seem that there exists a deeper, more profound level of  the veritable measure of "home",...
For 'home' is NOT the chairs and lamps...
'Home' is NOT the hammock or birdbath in the backyard....
Without sounding posthumous or trite....
I humbly suggest that our 'TRUE HOME' is that VERY specific place....
where our LOVE and our LIGHT have lived....
where our sentiment has evolved....
Home is a familiar smell.....
a yellow rose....
a pitch....a sound....
Home is who we REALLY ARE.....when the shades are drawn....
when the makeup from the day is removed...
when the crowds have gone.....
Home is that child whom we adore so....
that aged parent.....
that nostalgic song which grabs us with its utter familiaity....
Home....
Can we ever really go back ?
or.....
Are we ALREADY THERE ?