Inexplicably they appear in memory from time to time
the characters of the long-faded autumns and dim winters
Condescending, always ready to pry
to pick on, to step on, to say a loud word
and suddenly get caught like a nail on a remark
thrown by someone at random, like a pebble in the water
An unstoppable verbal tsunami pours in,
having fun scattering summer huts on the shore
I'm a terrified tourist that runs away, trying to escape
I dash into stronger huts, but those are also demolished
with relentless verbal tide of the condescending characters,
But wasn't that panic a usual thing
many summers ago, when life seemed a big adventure?
Know-it-all omnipercipients, satisfied with themselves,
making you want to disappear unnoticed,
quietly closing the door from the back side.
Has the stream of time taken you all?
My secret was simple - I always wore
laceless shoes, not to tarry up in the hallway,
disappearing without goodbye and without regret
escaping from their homes, clogged with the same
recycled paper books of the times, which seemed then
an invariable attribute of happy days,
the days of ignorance and innocence, full of hopes.
Categories:
laceless, memory,
Form: Free verse
Scissortail river running low beside the road
carrying a many weightless, little dead leaf
orange, yellow parade of patchwork vessels
passing beneath the old park bridge into shadow
I join a skipping-stone hunt along with you and June
working through silt in search for the perfect one
flat, smooth, of convex form, perfect
to soar from the surface in ricochet spin
We then each one built the tiniest of rafts
made of reeds gathered from the briar and knotted shoestrings
and away they raced, most coming upon rocks and breaking up
for only mine was somehow spared and drifted on
It too though disappeared under yonder oaken bridge
leading the cluttered cavalcade of litter and foliage
I wondered how far my raft might travel, maybe out to sea
as I trudged the mile home in laceless shoes
Categories:
laceless, life, nature,
Form: I do not know?