Anthony Bianco Poet Free verse

Puff From a Limestone Rock

Occasionally, I find myself back in the old neighborhood.
It looks slanted and aseptic, like an abortion clinic.
All the old trees have been gleaned from the streets.
No hedges separating the houses.
There are no weeds on the lawns.
Not a child running about.
There are no weeds on the lawns.
They look soft and pastel perfect...
Weed killer wasn't in full swing when I was a kid.

I see my old childhood home.
It looks better than what I remember.  
More refined but trimmed of any character.
A stranger is hosing down my old driveway
I want to punch him for trespassing.
I move down a couple of streets to the playground
Where we used to make boondoggle and crafts
Years later it was midnight love in the rough grass.

A short distance away, trains used to careen down the tracks 
My brother hopped on one and ran away once.
He vanished for about three days.
came back in a $hit load of trouble, looking filthy but quite refreshed.
He never talked about it much
, but I knew freedom had been good to him.
He was grounded for a week for his hobo run.
A couple of years later he would leave childhood for good.
On his own ironclad terms.

I came home from school one afternoon.
My father slowly walked over toward me. 
With a look I'd never seen before. 
He told me that my puppy slipped under the fence.
And sniffed its way onto those same train tracks. 
That had taken my brother to freedom land.

For a couple of years after, I'd fire rocks at the train
I felt both powerful and pitifully incompetent.
Like the limestone rocks that bounced off the metal cars
with a yellowish puff.
When the caboose was in sight, I'd retreat into the brush. 

Anyway, this will be my last visit to the old neighborhood.
Everything once so familiar and comforting is gone.
There are no more funerals to go to or old friends to see
, no oak trees or weeds.
The boondoggle and pink bubble of security burst a long time ago.
There's nothing left here for me anymore.
I leave like a puff of limestone rock against a soulless chain of metal.

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