REM
186
It's gone.
The house is gone.
He came and tore it down.
He built on the lot.
In fact he built on 2 lots.
180 and 186.
The red Georgia dirt is still there.
The same blue sky.
The same night time stars and moon.
I used to sit on the front steps
With my brown and white dog
I would gaze up
At the stars as they twinkled in the darkness.
Back then you could see the Big Dipper
and Little Dipper.
The Milky Way.
So clear it was.
No smog.
No haze.
Just clear, beautiful night sky.
We moved away.
I grew up.
Still in my mind's eye
I returned again
And again
To the old house
On the hill.
I was born in the front bedroom.
Skipped down the front steps
And walked to Chase Street School.
Climbed the flowering peach tree
In the back yard.
Gathered pecans
As my brothers climbed up
And shook the pecan tree's limbs.
Now he has come.
He brought his loud band
And microphone
And tailored suits
And money.
He built HIS house.
But underneath it all
I know. I can hear it.
My house still whispers
The same old sweet song at twilight.
6 comments:
What a lovely albeit sad memorial to your home.
That's so sad, Chancy. When I go back to my hometown, I pine for places that aren't there anymore.
I have lived in a couple of houses in my youth, but have felt as you when I return and see the contemporary remodel instead of the mountain home, or the farm land surrounded by a new subdivision.
That's bittersweet, Chancy and I can readily identify with your tribute. If you happened on my post about the Depression you can see pictures of my old home. A Safeway store now stands on the spot where the Lodge building stood and a freeway has buried the back half where cottages, tents and trailers once stood. I can't bear to look when I go home.
I hear the music in your melancholy verse. Memories linger on after the real building is gone. A couple of years ago I so missed seeing the very first home my husband and I owned. Even the road was gone as a million dollar home development in Ohio was built. I wonder what they're worth now?
This makes me teary Janet...it's beautiful. It pays tribute to all childhood homes and childhood memories....and dreams of yesterday....thank you.
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