Janus of Adaptability

Coming home from school,
Family home was repainted.
What once was cream,
Now freshly forest-green.

Returning to my hometown,
Residential has become commercial.
What once was single-family housing,
Now restaurants and bars for carousing.

Reconnecting with family and friends,
They have changed in our separation.
Who once were close and reliable,
Now distant, different, and deniable.

Change in absentia is not seen.
Needs and wants, increments and steps;
The rationale for the new at the expense of the old,
What was gradual for them needs not be told.

Robbery, outright theft of my heritage,
As assault on my sense of self and right.
Faced with the irrevocable new,
This knife in my back strikes true.