Uncle Buck

Some talk of a second coming

like it’s the return of someone

gone missing, an absence,

and are cleaning the house, cleaning

up the world, in anticipation,

with strict orders, threats even,

“or else,” not to mess it up, children

that we are, living here, when the long

lost Uncle Buck unexpectedly arrives,

hugs us all around, loving us equally,

saints and sinners, just as we are, issues

and problems, differences and dirt and all,

barely noticing the clean house, nor the effort

to make it that way, the energy expended,

just the pain inflicted in the cleansing.