Poem: Looking Back ( Post#2 for today!)

Looking Back

As we walk among the ruins, looking backward to a time,
when his family lived and loved here, working, all together;
I get the sense that life, here, was once so calm and fine…
contentment in the simplest of shelter!

He was just a baby boy, when he, first, was living here,
with older brothers he would grow to idolize…
with older sisters, tending, to coddle and be bossy!
And every day was filled with some surprise!

With baby sisters, too, who he loved … at times, avoided…
not wanting to get tangled-up in fusses or in fights!
So he’d hang out with the brothers, exploring things around them.
Their days were filled from mornings until nights!

The cotton shed still stands where his brothers once enticed him
to be buried in the cotton- piled so high above his head!
He did his brothers bidding- with just a crack for breathing!
He trusted them so he was not afraid!

The chimney still is standing, that helped warm them through the winters,
when the cold wind would be blowing, and each body would be chilled.
But the hearth would be inviting - and a blessing, there, to snuggle-
and the boys would always keep the wood box filled.


June Kellum
July2006