Let's Take the Long Way Back

let’s take the long way back beneath shaded oak and aromatic pine athwart the weathered split-rail fence bent into the warp and woof of nature’s wiles past the old place with its long front porch and massive beams holding memories of laughter and dancing feet in moonlit rooms resonating with sounds of family and friends fading now as we roll past the giant willow bending shade into the shape of long afternoons drawing water from the well with the fresh coppery taste so light and cool on a summer afternoon we glide into the blue-amber glow of the western penumbra spread long and wide with faint lights glimmering in the valley below melding light and shadow into night as we drift on wheels crunching gravel like popcorn between our teeth the hour is right in its time and all that might have been trailed behind and lost the way back to what we remember of days that are no more