There is nothing to declare here,
He plays in the street, skirting the craters left by the ruinous bombs,
his red shirt flashing in and out of view as he laughs and plays with all the innocence that a child should have.
There is nothing to declare here,
The boy laughs and spends his first kiss on a golden-haired sweetheart at the fair
She promises to love him forever
The romance doesn’t last the summer.
There is nothing to declare here,
His mother gently smooths down the shirt collar and pulls out her handkerchief as her baby boy makes his way to the front of the Church where his future-wife is waiting.
There is nothing to declare here,
A tear slides down his cheek at the sound of a baby crying and he wonders how he could love something so small with so much of him;
and then he does it again, four times.
There is nothing to declare here,
The father waves his boys off to school and tells his girls it won’t be long before they get to go too,
and then wonders where the time has gone.
There is nothing to declare here,
His arms is clasped firmly around his baby girl’s as she walks down the aisle, the last of his four children that he had to let go; the tears fall thickly and fast that day.
There is nothing to declare here,
He laughs in delight as his grandson reaches up his little chubby hand and grabs a fistful of his silvery hair, his face may have aged but those blue eyes had never shone so brightly.
There is nothing to declare here,
Just a very old man with a very old woman with four beautiful children and eight bouncing grandchildren.
And as he looks around and remembers all that he has done, a tear comes to those old, weary eyes and the youngest granddaughter asks why he is sad and he smiles softly and says:
‘There is nothing to declare, here, my love. I am just waiting now. But I was once young, oh,’ he murmured and turned his face to the heavens, ‘I was once unbelievably young.’
-
Author:
thewayiwrite (
Offline) - Published: February 15th, 2021 18:12
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 18
- Users favorite of this poem: Goldfinch60, L. B. Mek
Offline)
Comments6
Beautifully said, thewayiwrite, we are all in the same boat.
Thank you so much!
What a wonderful poem thewayiwrite, it is so meaningful to all especially to an oldie like me.
Andy
Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed it
This is going into my favourites.
this, here is that graceful wisdom of age, nothing like that bitterness of dotage 'some' choose to dwell within, yes you lament
but also, more importantly you choose to remember those brief rainbows that came with all that rain and therein exists all the difference, that gives every life: true meaning..
brilliantly executed, in both tone and flow
What lovely feedback 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to read it
That's not a 'random stream' - your claim after your last poem; that's a well constructed poem full of vivid imagery and a hell of a lot of insight for someone who definitely is NOT an oldie.
.
Wow thank you! Yes I’m 19, but I very much believe in trying to think of the perspective of others and wonder what it would be like to look back on a life well lived so i’m very glad you thought my work came close to doing that
Wow you chronicled life from childhood to aged, its all very poetically related, how time flies, a child becomes a grandfather all in one century. Kudos for a great fab poem.
Plz do read and comment my newest poem too.
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