DON'T BE LONG

we make our way home

after the storm

and talk to our families

on a multitude of singing cell phones

explain

how late we are

and how many hours we spent waiting

at the railroad stations in Skövde

or Hallsberg

for the trains to run as normal

we talk about the power outage on boxing day

how many hours it lasted

and how much fun we had

looking for matches and candles

and how we then chatted for hours

until our flickering faces made us drowsy

and that there was something there

tugging at us

pulling at someone in us

we didn't remember or recognise

someone rising east of a non-descript childhood

into a calendar year

marked with sticky crayons

on a chequered almanac

we miss you so much we say

and elaborate on how wonderful it will be

to be home again

that we didn't fully realise before

but get it now

and that we are coming to be with you

for forever

we think

in the conversational pauses

where we look out the windows

on trees speeding past in snowless greens

with the sun skipping bravely

over all the low branches

in the pauses

where the childs laughter fill the carriage

from having successfully drawn a turtle