Come Back
(For Reigate Art School)
by Sara L. Russell 10/5/09

The turning pages of this reminiscent mind
Go back over and ever to those days
Far from the darker foibles of humankind
Into the place where flight of fancy strays.

Long summers sitting on the grass outside those walls
In wonder, where dreamed our days away
The halcyon days; locked gardens, silent waterfalls -
Only return, I hear my child-voice say.

Familiar faces, filtering through memory,
perceived as ghostly shadows, come and go
Long languid summers, far away, come back to me
Come back, I'm fading in your afterglow.

Parties gyrating endlessly into the night
With half-forgotten words from distant friends
Come back to me, I swear next time I'll make it right
Mislead me back where laughter never ends.

Now heaven's stairway disappears behind a cloud
The smoke evaporated from the lake
Our dream guitars were made of air; now like a shroud
Time's shadow turns the ball into a wake.

The burning pages of this reminiscent mind
Are testament to long-lost better days
Come back to me, with all the loved and left-behind;
All beauty that evolves but never stays.