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Back home
apples tumbled to the ground
while I traveled loudly
through the world

Now evening and we are home
mom kids Sam the dog
full of dinner tired from chasing
so many sticks

Now the dog leaps up
at each leaf rattle thump
ready to protect us from
Dangerous Fruit

Now we are
quiet enough
to hear the apples fall

and there ought to be a word
for this feeling both lonesome and cozy
for how other apples fell
while we were far away and noisy
neither us nor apples thinking of each other
though there’s the outside chance
the dog was listening for them,
even then