Waking in a thumbtack town,
Where everyone knows your name:
Did you ever think it could be like this?

Of course you did.
You pictured for years,
From the old brass door knocker,
To the mat on the ground cheerfully
Welcoming you to a
Home sweet home!

You imagined the air laced with cinnamon,
The fire lapping at the logs,
Warming the frozen toes that only
A Vermont dweller could know.
Even the photos are like you imagined,
Radiant faces, friends and family, pouring from the mantle above you.

And there are the books.
The shelves after shelves,
Every story you can dream of and more,
Every question you could think to ask,
And somehow the ratty pages
Are better than any answer Google could provide.

Back then you had hoped
That he would want this too.
Hoped he’d be desperate like you
To decide on what is real in the world.
You hoped he’d want a dog.
Perhaps even two.

You, a printed novelist,
Him, a thriving entrepreneur.
Making a reality in the thumbtack marked town
On the map
On the wall of your bedroom
All those years.

Living in this thumbtack town,
Your wanderlust only briefly suppressed:
Did you ever think it could really be like this?