William Ogden Haynes: HOMECOMING 1945

William Ogden Haynes is a shortlist winner nominee of the 2024 Adelaide Literary Award Contest in the category of Poetry, with his poem titled Homecoming 1945. Mr. Haynes is a poet and author of short fiction from Alabama who was born in Michigan. He has published several collections of poetry and many of his poems and short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. http://www.williamogdenhaynes.com

Homecoming 1945

The Greyhound dropped me about a mile

back on Georgia State Route 50, because

they don’t travel these county roads. It was

another two miles until I reached the long

dirt driveway leading to my family home.

A quarter mile down that drive sat a white

Victorian Greek Revival with pillars

and a large shaded front porch. But even

from that distance I could tell it was Bessie,

our long-time maid who raised me, running

toward me leaving a trail of dust between

the grand boulevard of oaks. It was as if she

was running in slow motion, but as she got

closer, I could see her smile and the tears on

her cheeks. Then this sixty-year-old daughter

of slaves, said “Welcome home Mr. Johnny,”

and jumped into my arms, making me drop

my suitcase to catch her. I’ll always wonder

why my mother, like a lavender rose pressed

in a book, stayed up on the front porch in a

rocking chair sipping her iced tea, on the

day I returned home from the great war.

William Ogden Haynes