I forgot all of their names

I had come home for just a week
I didn’t put my bags down
I was afraid that if I stopped
I would lose my momentum and
I would fall

I looked at the picture in a drawer
I hadn’t opened in a while
I looked at all the faces in the frame
I hadn’t seen in such a long time
I looked at them in disbelief
I tried harder but I realised
I forgot all of their names

I had my mind still wandering
I just couldn’t find the place
I had left a year before
I kept looking for it
I couldn’t return because
I was not the same

This is a poem about coming home after a long time but not finding the feeling of being home. Not recognizing certain things, having forgotten the names of places and people, and figuring out what that means about who you are.