They called me suddenly just yesterday
Asking me to come back home
Back to the fertile loam and rolling hills
Back to the place I was born and grown
Family: now almost a lost memory
From a childhood of carefree delight
Country roads that wind and twist
Awaken in my memory’s clear sight

There are memorials across the county
Where the people I love were left in death
The graves of all those I’ve cherished most
A place to stand, to recall their last breath
To say a prayer and shed a tear of sadness
And brush away the splattered mowed leaves
That endure the seasons clinging tight
Visiting each, a man in sorrow, who grieves

Cornfields almost endless in my youth
Have sprouted boxed-homes and street lamps
The hidden fortress that was my solitary place
Is now a skate park, full of dips and ramps
It was the place where Maggie showed me
What a girl had that was different from mine
It was a place to hold her hand and kiss her
A place hidden, where we could cross the line

Today they called me again to come home
had lost another relative to death’s call
I had to stand as tears flowing filled my eyes
Memories flooding as my mind’s levies fall
The smiles and kindnesses of a lifetime pour
Moaningly, released is sorrow’s pitched tone
Embraces of love that once lifted the soul
A shuddering that hurts down to the bone

01/05/2020

Posted on 01/05/2020
Copyright © 2024 Brian Francis