Childhood [poems]

---

Free Spirit

dust danced in sun rays peaking

through cracks of the barn‘s slats

the hay‘s dust tickled my nose

heart pounded before the jump

swallow flocks dove in and out

peekspoo games with croaking frogs

perched on pills of pungent manure

inflated necks like water balloons

i peeked they stop I hid they croaked

walked along the barbed wire fence

my boot got stuck in the thick mud

reached in with out stretched hand

to be liked by big scratchy tongues

my heart pounded in panicked fear

wings spread honked and hissed

chased me in the chicken coup

i ran fast to lock the gate in time

a row of Mysterious Weeping willows

formed majestic tunnels along ponds

i search for my enchanted frog prince

instead caught tadpoles with tiny feet

A dog barked, the sound of distant laugher

dishes clicked wafted through the open

window as i drifted away on the warm

summer night‘s breeze to a magical place

---

A LONG GONE SIMPLER TIME

i was thinking about you the other day

remembering a long gone simpler time

when you flicking a rubber seal band at

me lead to hours of running and hiding

and an unhappy Oma for we used her

orange mason jar seal rings in battle

everything seemed possible back then

we could fly if only for a few seconds

as we jumped off of huge stacks of hay

i was always in trouble for yelling the

loudest and never following the rules

you sigh some things never change

they sold the old Miller‘s Farm house

the place of so many of our childhood

memories many years ago it has been

i have not had the courage to return yet

in my dreams I find my way back there

that place of a long gone simpler time