As They Were

I visited
the landscape of my childhood
the other day-
houses, schools, shops,
some still recognizable
and yet,
with time has come
inevitable change.

After half a century,
there is no trace of me there,
no sign that once,
we were the children
playing kickball on the street,
riding our bikes around the block.

Even our family home,
once the center
of everything I knew,
is gone,
replaced with something
fresher.

There are new families,
new generations of children,
new stories being lived out
in that neighborhood.

Yet, the memory of the place
still exists intact
so that I can walk the streets
in my mind,
a child again,
and see the homes,
the people,
as they were.

For though
I made no impression on it,
that first
and indelible landscape
made a vital impression
on me.

By Maria Brady-Smith