Show Me the Place, 102

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

102: Mark Twain House—Stormfield—Redding, Connecticut; July 21, 2008

This is the last place Twain would be—

He’d lost so much—his family.

But built this home up in the hills—

With views of trees and sky and rills.

Twain died, of course in 1910–

Most celebrated he was then—

With Halley’s Comet in the sky*

Announcing it was time to die.

The house is gone now**—but the scene

Remains—so bright and lush and green.

I saw it on a perfect day—

And felt Twain’s presence—every way.

*It had also been in the sky at his birth in 1835.

**burned down in 1923