Feather's Miscellany: Chestnut Trees In Victoria Park
...I climbed tall trees as green as my youth...
John Waddington-Feather yearns for the salad days of youth.
I remember those days as a child,
when I paddled my way through life
in a park which brought down the whole
of time about my ears, and stole
my mind, my precious jewel
mind of a child still innocent and pure.
And time-locked there within that store
of fantasy I climbed tall trees
as green as my youth, and on seas
of leaves I sailed a while whole worlds away
to live delight in dreams, and stay
all day in that land of leaves;
until with age they dropped and, thieves
of time, fell all away with the wind,
taking my innocent youth. And I have sinned
my way through life since then
and vainly watch that bleak fall again
of childhood into the earth,
till I ache in vain for those cries of mirth
in the bare, black branches above;
only hearing now the sad wind’s wail shove
the last leaves down, making me yearn
for those salad days and childhood’s sweet return.
John Waddington-Feather ©
