Sanctuary

Back in the sun –
how long has it been?
I welcome you back
my kind, warm friend.
I sit on a bench that is
old, weathered and tired,
a structure which has certainly known
the simplest impressions of man.
I am thankful it is here,
dried by the sun,
for the grass still holds the memory of the rain,
which has made this day a better one.
The grass:
soft and green as the eyes
I once gazed into to know a lover
now part of a yesterday
that changed all my tomorrows.
And the grass rises to meet the sky,
to kiss it sweetly,
grateful for the rain it gave,
but loving it for the sun it now lets through.
The brown haze I’ve seen too long
today is gone,
for the rain washed it down
to soak into the city from which it was spawned;
and the park lives on.
Yes, the park lives on.
Gnats are swarming
while frisbees fly
over the grass
where people lie
courting the sun
with limbs they’ve bared;
it’s been much too long
since they have dared
to rid themselves of the clutter
of coats and jackets and sweaters
like the one over the shoulder
of the girl who expected colder
weather, but now that she has realized
she crosses the park in lazy strides
to disappear
into the city.
Yet today the park seems lonely
as the benches hold only
a dreamer each
trying to escape the city.
What a shame the dreamers are not as free
as the dogs that run and play before me;
never afraid to stop and sniff
    a new friend.
A mother walks by with a child on her back
that soon will learn and feel the lack
of the beauty of the sky and trees and grass
when the city has caused the beauty to pass
like a love of mine that did not last
because I chose
a new city over the one we shared;
a change of which she was not prepared.
So the journey I took has left me here
     remembering.
Why must the buildings rise higher than the trees?
(the perspective of which leaves me ill at ease)
The sounds of construction pry into my ears;
building and building those concrete tears
in my eyes.
Won’t they ever stop?
Nothing to do but try
to ignore.
Ignore the city that encircles my dream
and look away from the traffic of the industrial stream
and lower my gaze
to the soft, green grass
and remember the love
   I let slip past
for a city.

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Poemission

Sanctuary from the Asylum
(A Few Moments in the Park)

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