Once Upon a Long Ago
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Painting by Lin Lane
~ Once upon a long ago...
Three kids were raised on my family's farm
I am the middle child who spent more time
working in the fields with Dad, my Galahad,
for I found household chores such a bore.
Outside, in the fresh air, me and mon pere
worked side by side, talking about the future.
We pruned row after row of tomato plants,
fed chickens that were later killed, one by one
but when their blood was spilled, I was sick
Not a bite of them could I take while my heart
ached for the baby chicks I had raised.
To this day, I don't eat a lot of eggs.
How many times did I fall from the hay loft...
Quite oft, and from the swing in the tree
Another treasured childhood memory.
Beneath it I cried and then dried my tears,
overcoming fears, and through the years,
Dad kept replacing the rope swing in the tree,
of the barnyard meadow, just for me.
The tree's still there on my family's land
I painted it last Autumn when I visited the farm.
The fields are no longer tended and plowed
Rows are fallow on what was once hallowed
ground to me. There are no kids playing there
no longer a rope swing. Everything is changed,
rearranged to suit the needs of the new owners
who kindly understood when I asked if I could
paint the old rusty-roofed barn of my childhood
where I once rode my horse, and of course
played hide and seek with my sister and brother,
once upon a long ago ~
Copyright © Lin Lane | Year Posted 2024
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