Poem--Return

I walked along old, forgotten paths,
Once frequented and beloved;
I looked, and a rush of memories
With fresh colours, painted that faded sight—
With voices and laughter and familiar forms
That never again shall pass that way.

I sat by the tree in whose cool shade,
We had sworn lifelong friendship;
Friends who, with hours and days and miles
Had been lost on life’s busy roads;
Their shadows still flit, with every breeze
Under that evergreen, gnarled old tree.

I wandered by the park, and our playhouse,
Where we’d spent unnumbered hours;
I sat in the hollow near the stream
Where we’d shared a thousand hopes and dreams;
Soft whispers still echo in that cave,
In refrain to that streamlet’s song…

I was startled—I heard a forgotten voice—
And turning, found a faintly familiar face;
We sat and shared those childhood’s tales:
Bridged, for an hour, the years between,
And then I walked back, alone again;
A day spent I, with memories.