Looking Beyond

The trees had grown in the old backyard
That had long been abandoned
The river we used to swim
Was now scanty and dried up
Wild flowers stop to bloom
Wild trees bear no more fruits.

Days had flown
Out of the childhood blues
Young days had gone
Only those memories left

I’m here looking beyond
How nice to climb a hill
Roll in the grasses
Captured a pitiful nest
Of young helpless birds.

The rocking chair is no longer there
Where old Grandma used to tell fairy tales
Of dwarfs and giants
Of fairies and mermaids
Of ghosts at six o’clock rosary bells
Caused me running to her lap.

The old altar I used to pray
With old folks, yes a boring daily litany
Of prayers, kneeling and singing
All had been ruined
The time had abandoned them.

The old stair I used to walk
The old corridor I hate to clean
The old house is now nowhere to find.

I am looking beyond
Yesterdays, looking beyond
In my awakening mood at dawn
I saw familiar ghosts in my imaginations
The old sweet home in a place far away from here
Too many familiar people waving hands seem
Calling to look beyond
The past of where I was once.

18 June 1992