O Sacred Park



O sacred park,
What bittersweet memories lay
Hidden in the thick
Boughs of your gnarly oaks and decrepit elms.
Your once bountiful woodland,
Now ravaged and wasted,
Reeks the foul stench of abandonment and decay.
As I walk your blighted grounds,
The echoes of a thousand weeping yesterdays
Rise up from the fossilized remains
Of my shattered heart and forgotten dreams.

O hallowed park,
O'er your dusty ball fields,
A shining star once rose.
Often could be heard that glorious summer...
The crack of the bat... the roar of the crowd...
But the deafening din would too soon fade...
To sparse applause...
Then... stillness.

O blessed park,
How love blossomed and flourished
Amidst your gaily-lit trails
And sweet-scented pines.
Two hearts, locked in rapturous embrace,
Exchanging passionate kisses
Under a smiling October moon.
But love withered and blew away,
Like the moldering leaves that crunch under my feet,
As I walk your empty roads, alone,
In teary, mournful silence.

O mysterious park,
Our souls and our fates are for ever intertwined.
Your abundant trees have been decimated.
Your verdant grass has turned to brown.
Your earthen road has been paved over,
Encrusting the dirt,
As the ravages of time has encrusted my mind,
Eroding and wiping away
A lifetime of bittersweet memories.

© 2008 by Eric D. Greene