Memories Lost In Time
The dogwood burgeoned with creamy blossoms,
boughs spread over my childhood,
I grew up beneath those branches, gathering flowers of ivory and crimson,
content to play in innocence, sheltered by loving limbs,
But my bond with that white crowned beauty, could not stay my moving away,
And all my love and precious memories were to no avail,
the day I returned to find it gone,
with not a bloodstained petal left to relate it's loss,
but only a withered stump to declare the tragedy,
The pine soared high, tip touching the edge of possibility,
Climbing among those branches, my soul took wing,
Looking down on my rooftop and out to the sky, I found freedom,
and in resting I found refuge, in my living tower,
a retreat on high for reflection and contemplation,
a private place to muse, to ponder, and to dream,
But desire could not keep my family in my lifelong home,
And all my love and all my wishing my eyes betrayed me,
were rendered powerless in the face of the truth,
and the sight of resin bleeding, from wounds where great branches once grew,
There was the maple that shaded me, as I sat in repose with my pets,
or scurried below in summer's balmy haze, absorbed in the games of youth,
Seashells I buried under it, as a pirate buries treasure precious,
and fond memories were cradled in it's boughs, of seasons of laughter and love,
There was also the ivy that grew wild about,
a lush green jungle to be waded through, and a thriving life to be cared for,
Then there were the day lilies that sprouted new each year,
and nudged their buds open wide, to nod their heavy heads in the sun,
And there was the forsythia bush that bloomed all in gold,
which mantled it's whispy stems in an affluence of delicate bells,
But all of them are now gone,
plucked in their prime from the nurturing earth,
with empty spaces as their only legacy,
I shall not forget those Sentries of my Youth,
though they have passed beyond this world,
and faded to become,
Echoes of the Past,
Memories Lost in Time.