Never Go Back

Walking through the streets of my home town Reaching for the Memories of days long passed Seeing nothing of what I once knew Accepting the fact That I can never go back To the time when doors remained unlocked And no one ever knocked When a whole section of town converged on one home A death in the family brought neighbors to your door There was a sense of community and Dignity was not a status symbol Wednesday's the miner rested In the afternoon possibly at a local bar While clothes lines decorated back yards Clorox making it new again Found a quarter equals five on the pinball unless She was there Making three and two cokes a better selection Baseball glove dangling from the handlebars and there was no charge for dreams The park beckoned the wild bunch with a pack of Luckies Never thinking twelve was too young And not knowing The tragedy of progress Those days when friendships bonded a town Anger only lasted until the fight was finished There was a game tomorrow night Winner and loser going to see it together And the only real enemy was TIME.