BACK TO CHILDHOOD

Back sixty years to lost houses

lost paths

labours lost

lost lives.

Back to the old lady, pinafore dusted with flour

standing in the cottage door

mewling children at her feet.

Back to the labourer in the field

shire horse in hand

guiding the furrow o'er the hillside

ploughing for the future.

Back to the youth paying court

to the golden haired lass

his true love

who will leave him tomorrow.

Back to the the days of infancy

when I saw men stooking hay

hoeing beet in spring time

mopping weary brows mid-morning.

Back to my first steps into life

into the countryside

into woodland, onto wold

along the wild side.

Back to the days when days were forever

the blink of an eye an hour long

and there was no such word as Never.

Back to the days when comics were for kids

not collectors things

but prized for their laughs

not their rarity.

Back to the days the valley knew

in simple 1950's style

the first tractors

ranging the land.

Back to childhood (mine)

to parents toil

to the valley dozing before

the twenty-first century.

Back to the days that made me.