Greensward, Oregon

A Poem by Richard

Just because it’s 1962
Doesn’t mean we can act like we’ve been around for nineteen-hundred-And-Sixty-Two years
Doesn’t indicate that the Von-Bron’s we’re really once the Brown’s.

The old apple orchard in Greensward, Oregon

Where we used to play

the baby-boomers call it "Dreamward"

but they're the least dreamy generation

The flower bed where flowers - presumably sleep,
And the cave mouth with mossy upper-lip, moans at the pasture
Doesn’t demonstrate that we will soon get old - because age is just a number - and grey is just a color
Doesn’t prove what logic suggests:

that a gentle breeze will cool this land
That our hearts will rule our heads
And our hands will do the talking
That white mailboxes at the end of driveways,

are this town’s equivalent of local mayoral candidacy signs stomped way down in the ground

it sure is nice though
the sound of a fish drinking from the lake
and the trees - from seed to sapling

doing things that only adolescent trees might do
such as learn and grow and branch off from one interest to the next
it’s a place we can all relate to
I’m sure of that
a place where invitations to hilltop manors get misplaced in bell towers
and memories become rumors and then back again
the mud tracks sloshed across the kitchen floor
Settie and her brother - getting restless on Sunday’s
because it’s church day! A day to clean! A day to themselves
It’s 1964 now..
And all we have left are our memory banks
in the center of our brains
that deposits memories and withdraws happiness
..or are they just rumors?

© 2013 Richard

Author's Note

Remember when you were a kid?

My Review

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Reviews

Girl Friday (Sarah W.)

There is a lot written in this piece. I like that you opened yourself up in terms of emotion and in telling your own story, which reminded me a lot of my own story in many ways. Things do have a way of evolving and changing, and I think there comes a point in all of our lives when we wonder if the world is moving too fast for us to keep up. I remember...we all remember...