While we ran the backyards,
the slow walk through the dandelions
pollened by summer’s bees,
we did think alone,
the same way we,
the same notions, we may
have today, the same wonderment
of the psychological nature,
compels our being,
causes our heart to swoon,
allows for the time to stand still,
we can all be in love
when we know the answer is
truth in the manner of an eternal Grace.
I do know love, I like to say,
much better than yesterday,
though a child,
I knew love unconditionally
until one day …
We wander beyond our lost innocence
a compelling stir
of reality and fantasy,
suddenly knowing why our tears
could last forever,
or at least until
we are told that is
good enough,
life goes on,
time to move forward,
hold onto memory,
but never ever recall the same.
As a little boy,
I used to watch cars slip up the hill,
a winter’s night, the street light,
snow filled the neighborhood,
and my ten year old self
safely tucked inside a picture window,
could watch the world survive a winter’s storm.
I would often wonder about the people inside,
if they knew I was watching,
if they could tell even in that stormy moment,
they would never be alone,
lost and frozen in the cold,
the ice of the street
would prevent them from
being in their own home,
the comfort of home,
putting aside all of the day’s
concerns,
having a martini,
perhaps a cigar,
and maybe a little bit of fantasy,
thinking about that woman at the bar,
and wondering again,
did she really smile,
or was that simply nerves.
I once left a hillside campground,
the whole walk worrying about fire,
and later ran back up the trail,
crossed the mountain creek
we liked to call it,
a little stream of shale and rocks,
gurgling along Woods’s Hill,
a memory,
when I returned to camp,
the fires had begun to ignite,
I felt like a boy scout
stamping out our ignorance.
I remember the day he died,
my world ended just a little bit,
enough for me to know,
reality was a far greater burden,
than the easy bliss of childhood fantasy.
I remember thinking then,
I would never worry about dwelling
on the past,
because nowadays,
there is too much excitement ahead.
I never forgot you man,
always on my mind,
I’ve often wondered if your childhood,
was ever so easily defined.
