Nostalgia

The brick goes on forever

As the sky blows away.

Old buildings, new names;

Familiar streets, new games.

Train whistle blows–what a sound!

Sights and smells bring you back

To places you thought you had lost.

Remember the familiar flowery tree

That waves as you pass by.

Remember the steel lily growing in the sun,

Ever the same, but different at the same time.

I never thought I’d be back in this town,

Where grey clouds race across the sky,

Walking through streets and passing doors

Changed as much as I.

There is the candy shop where I used to find

All my favorite treats for a nickel or a dime.

And there is the park where I used to play

On the swings. It seems like yesterday

When I swung too high and jumped off,

Landing wrong on ground not as soft

As I thought it would be.

I move along to the next place I knew,

Or at least thought I did—it’s so different now.

Where once was a strip with an ice cream shop—

The best in town, I remember it well!—

Is some sort of fast food joint and a huge parking lot.

And the street where my best friend once lived

Looks run down and dull, much in need of a face lift.

I sigh and walk on, continuing my rounds,

Wondering if what I remember is right,

In light of the changes I now found.

Are the details in my mind truly how things were,

Were times as good as I thought?

Or are they the product of a child,

Rose-colored and shiny, living in their own world,

Oblivious to how things really work?

As I ponder these truths,

Hoping to reveal some lies,

I come back to where I started

As the moon starts to rise.

As things look different at night than in the day,

Time has a way of changing things,

Nothing stays the same.

The sky goes on forever

As the brick blows away.