- Us Kids -

By John Herlihy

As infants, we crawled into cupboards and down holes,

Our spirit of adventure shone light into darkness.

As toddlers, we stood up and took our first steps.

We rose up in flight, we fell, we laughed and got up again.

How fearless, how brave we were, our hearts did surge,

We knew not of any limits, we acted upon every urge.

Everything was perfect; nothing could go wrong,

The sun in our faces, the wind sweeping us along

Reminisce, you ask, those glorious winters come to mind.

Who can forget those childhood memories of another kind?

Dripping icicles hanging from the house gutters like spears,

Melting later in daytime sunlight drop by drop like tears,

Snow falling gently at night with peace to fill our little hearts,

Building a snowman with carrots for a nose until he departs.

Puff-white clouds of smoky breath filled us with enchantment,

Sledding down steep hills of a nearby golf course in wonderment.

But most of all I remember ice skating on a neighborhood pond,

Flood-lit at night by the municipality, seemingly struck by a magic wand.

How stars and moon shone upon us on each sparkling winter night;

The night darkness swept mercilessly away in all this magical light.

Not every night, but some nights, the snow fell with an unearthly glow;

The magical flakes descended in droves, filling the ice with dusty snow.

How my heart thumped and surged, bursting when filled to the brim;

As day turned to dusk, we excused ourselves from the house on a whim.

Us kids from the neighborhood donned our skates and took to the ice;

We dashed and danced across the frozen pond like frantic mice.

I remember the tentative steps, leaving the ground, then feeling of mirth;

Each stroke of the blades of my skates gliding me forward for all my worth.

I twisted my head, turned my body, my arms extended, I felt lifted aloft;

The multitude of stars fell into my eyes, the night breeze on the face felt soft.

Lifted now from the gravity of the earth, I rode the wind ever upward on high;

There we were, in those glorious days of childhood, lost amid the clouds of sky.

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(c) John Herlihy 4 November 2018