Gone

Built sometime in the 1800’s

Concrete walls and built to last

This home provided protection

And shelter for a newly arrived family

And over a hundred years later

And many families come and gone

I arrived on its threshold

Two small children in tow

I raised them there and a third one too

They roamed the fields and drowned worms in the canal

We rode freely upon our trusty steeds

And laughed and worked and cried some too

But now this home, and walls that heard so much

Is gone, just gone, not even a trace that it once stood

But a single rope hangs from the old maple tree

Worn thin by swinging children, proof that life was lived there

No longer the pastures or the marshy swamp

No children running, no horses or cows

For now where we lived and my children grew

Are dozens of new homes, the canal all dried up

I walked around and twenty years of memories

Flashed through my being—mostly good

But all that living, the good and the bad

Are sealed within me, though the walls are gone