Category : Poems

Sub Category : N/A

I was taking care of a gentleman with Parkinson's disease. One night he started talking about an old playground he used to go to. He started smiling and laughing. Suddenly he said hello and reached out towards someone unseen by me. He was gone. His smile told he was not afraid. I wrote the following poem for his funeral and with the family's permission, I share it here. Enjoy.
Love
Anthony L.

I am broken

Memories elude me
Like soft touches from old friends
They play on forgotten playgrounds
They dance on barren stages
They are far from me

I am broken

I head through the fog
To a place I knew
Or a place
I think I know

It is a park
Long ago forgotten
No child plays here
This park
This place
Perhaps it exsists
Only in my mind

I am broken

Sounds of children
laughing
playing
ring through the air
yet when one looks
no one is near

shadows fall along empty courts 
swings move on their own
have all the children
been called home?

So why am I still here?

familiar scents
come to me
upon the wind
they are the smells of life
ice cream
cut grass 
hauntingly 
they call to me
from some long dead past

I am weary
Older than most
I sit quietly
Let memories wash over me

I am broken

on the sidelines
of this hidden game
the shadows that I watch
come closer

a single darkness
comes closer than the rest
the shadow mingles with my own
a touch so soft
so fleeting
I would have missed it
had I not been watching

I swear
for a moment
I hear a small voice
inside my head
one of joy
long forgotten

standing to my feet
I reach to the memory
suddenly I realize
I have come home
my memories
have been restored

I see my friend
Standing near
I see my friend
Upon the swing
I smile
for I know

I am home

I am whole.