Any Small Town
Before I understood how life
was a weave of intricacies
My town was a wonderful world
to serve my childish fantasies.
I was a young and healthy lad
a source of mother’s pride and joy
with sun bleached hair and sky-blue eyes.
just your average wide-eyed boy
On summer days I could run free
over hills and through fields of grain
played outside in times of sunshine
and inside whenever it rained
I loved to hunt and fish the creek
played in the streets because I could
In my naive idealism.
the outside world was kind and good
My world was from the northern hills
and south as far as I could see
About twenty square miles of everything
A curious boy wanted it to be
Right there smack dab in the middle of it
sat a little town they called Wakenda
Just a few houses and a tiny store
the grandest place anyone ever saw
A place where fathers manicured their lawns
and neighbors waved or greeted each other
There was no need for privacy fences
People treated each other like brothers
Where the men drove away every morning
to places that I did not know where
in my mind some place that was exotic
but I can’t say that I ever did care
Hard-working mothers stayed home all day long,
cooked the breakfast, lunch, and dinner with ease
hung their fresh washed laundry out on clothes lines
and let our underwear swing in the breeze
We played kick the can right out in the street
Or chased lightning bugs out in the backyard
Hide and seek could cover a couple blocks
So could freeze tag or ghost in the graveyard
In that magical village where I lived
I knew everyone and they all knew me
Never a worry about anything
I was safe, loved, innocent and naive
But then, when I was nearly ten years old
It was the first time that I witnessed death
a boy, just a few years older than me
an accident had stolen his last breath
His death was like a stone tossed from a hand
into the pool of my reality
Its ripples spread out from my soul’s center
with each wave a truth was revealed to me.
I could not view life through rose colored glass
the youthful playground was taken from me
My life had become very small and cramped
just a shell of what it once used to be
I saw the evil that surrounds us all
hiding in the shadows just out of sight
The town I loved now had blurry edges
life decaying behind an opaque light
Still the same town with all the same people
living their lives as if nothing had changed
Why had they not noticed the dust and dirt
and just how life had been so rearranged
What had started as just tiny ripples
had now turned themselves into foaming waves
that smashed my innocents against the rocks
and helped to mold my adolescence days
Copyright © Jerry Brotherton | Year Posted 2024
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