Missouri Childhood

                                                 Missouri Childhood      

                                   Once I was young under the locust trees

                                              And living in sultry Missouri.

I climbed down the creaky oak stairway

 I stole away out the door.

Outdoors was my domain in those summer days.

I was a slender child in Columbia, Missouri

Playing in the daisy dappled meadows

And skating down the knee scabbed pavement.

Barefoot on the grassy lawn.

 Missouri cicadas buzzed all the night long.

So I lay on the clover strewn lawn

And  gazed up at the starry night

Breathed  locust blossom scented air—

And I went to bed dreaming of ghost ships

Circling the globe on sea currents

As horned owls flew past my open windows.

Then time carried me far away

From places where I liked to play--

Looks like I am in Michigan to stay.

Water in a clear babbling creek

Changes course

And sings as it flows along—songs of

 Where it has been

And what is yet to be.

Two More of My Poems

Two More Poems of Mine

Born in New York City

I was born among skyscrapers

before the twin towers fell

I rode a baby carriage like a chariot

As my mother pushed it through

Central Park--the grey outcrops of rock

green grass and the leaves of trees

danced before my eyes and the gentle

breeze made me smile.

I almost remember bird songs

and the Good Humor man's bell.

Childhood

Let me play in tar

And make mud pies for lunch.

I want to run on hot and humid days

And lie in the cool grass at night.

Remove the speck from my eye

With the corner of your hanky.

Tear the bandage off my knee

Then douse the scrape with iodine.

But do not put French braids in my hair

That pull my eyes toward my ears.

Let me keep caterpillars that will

morph into butterflies.

And fly away.