Faded and long neglected
Hidden behind all the
Broken dreams of childhood
Once so crowded and loud
With so many voices
All screaming to be heard
You were so full of life
Now just a dying house
With nothing left to give
Tag: youth
Yesterday’s Love
We were the youngest of lovers
Crossing the threshold of desire
Impatient and heated
Souls burning with the fires of youth
Bathing in the sureness of immortality
I shook my fists at the world
Then hid inside you for refuge
Sanctuary from an uncaring world
Now I am ancient
Shadows of crosses dull my eyes
So many years have slid past
Since first we touched each other’s hearts
Our young love still consumes my thoughts
Fills my passions
As if it were but yesterday
August 25th, 1973
We watched the barefoot children in green yards dart through shadows, playing their childish games. We saw their innocents and we knew that…
They were not us
Through open doors and windows we saw them staring blankly at their flickering screens. They were sitting so close yet ignoring each other. Wishing…
They could be us
There was an old couple sitting on their front porch, fading from life. They smiled and waved, trying to remember a time when they knew…
How to be us
We pause for just a moment beneath the street lights glow, your hands in the pockets of my jeans and mine on your shoulders. Our souls touched and we were…
Happy to be us
Things I learned in My Youth
Maple trees are easiest to climb
Oak trees offer the grandest view
Willow trees are better to hide behind
If someone is looking for you
Love thy neighbor is always right
But lust is usually a sin
In a fight between a fist and a nose
The fist will always win
Don’t raise your hand just to impress a girl
If you don’t know the answer
Don’t take her to a hockey game
If you’re trying to romance her
We’ll keep in touch means it’s the end
Despite your good intentions
Because out of sight means out of mind
Due to inattention
The Past
A loving place where I did once dwell
But will never be allowed to return
You are the spring that feeds the stories I tell
The keeper of the things that I have learned
Each step I take is filled with memories
From a life that I once knew
Every smell from flower and tree
Pulls my thoughts back to you
There in those backyards of my memories
I recall my pledge from so long ago
That I will remain open and free
And cling to youth and never let go
Jerry Brotherton 