Whispered Wanderings

Agh! How are we so close to the end again already?!?! Anyway.

Today’s prompt: “try to write a poem of your own that has multiple numbered sections. Attempt to have each section be in dialogue with the others, like a song where a different person sings each verse, giving a different point of view. Set the poem in a specific place that you used to spend a lot of time in, but don’t spend time in anymore.”

Not sure how well I succeeded, but here’s my take:

Escape

1

In the backyard
of my childhood home,
growing close to the house:
my beautiful, welcoming,
oak tree.

2

Seed pods spinning like
tiny green helicopters
soon cover the ground;
with time and sunlight
if unswept, begin to
crumble under our feet.

3

Ah but my tree
I felt so at home climbing
among her high branches,
until I was above the rooftop…
to lay comfortably cradled
in her branches;
held in the safety,
hidden by her leaves,
above the noise and confusion
of daily life.

4

Until life took me far away
from that backyard tree…
and I’ve also heard that she
is no longer there
for me to climb
as if she somehow understood
that I would never return.

5

I suppose that’s the way
of it;
children grow and change and
move on.

6

But in my dreams
unencumbered by time, distance, and
a late-blooming fear of heights
I still climb up her branches to that one
perfect spot
where I used to lay and rest
and feel
her peace
flow through me.

klm
4/23/23