Lane Change

dead end street … mostly elderly when we came always quiet … empty nests side-by-side aching for spring but winter came instead (the winter of life) friends … good people - town folk who raised this little borough with pride came to this blind alley to wait for God and He obliged … one-by-one, this road of retirement rolled over … the reap saw these quiet abodes flipping fast and furious and the once-aged occupants were replaced with families - young professionals and upstarts fresh-woven nests filled with chicks and younglings - little voices and wings to test upon the breeze training wheels and swing sets where lounge chairs once grazed lazily backboards and rollerblades and a valid reason for the ice cream truck to loiter, it’s silly music box jingling the afternoons with cold, tasty wonder-in-a-cone … time - passing like a subway car - just a flash in the dark … grain-by-grain the hourglass steadily sifted and a once-peaceful lane became a circus of activity - giggles and screeches replacing the silence with the music of life the rarely-a-car avenue, vibrant and joyous picnics and lawn parties birthdays and showers and fireworks playballs left unattended bicycles laid at the curbs in a rush pets being walked and the commonplace, everyday things started being … every day … oh, no mistake - I loved the quiet when we came and tho’ I dread the winter months now - the post-Christmas cold, dead and long-dark days, grinding on me like a ragged old dirge - that quietude and peaceful contemplation is STILL one of life’s greatest “little pleasures” to me … yet … it’s the NOISE that I’ve come to miss the most this time of year - those little voices of youth and vibrancy that sing me through the warm months, reminding me what being here is all about, and making me yearn more than ever the sweet, joyous, callow kiss … of Spring. (Photo of Maplewood Drive by yours truly)