Monday, September 4, 2023

Toys at the Base of an Oak Tree - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Toys at the Base of an Oak Tree

 

“We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?” asked Piglet.
“Even longer,” Pooh answered.

- A. A. Milne

 

You find them at the base of a tree sometimes:

A pewter knight or a plastic Robin Hood

Or a marble lost in the long-ago

Turned up among the weeds by shifting roots

 

In the leafy silences of summer a little boy

Practiced the arts of magic and manliness

With Robin Hood and the pewter knight searching for a jewel

To present to their Lady Marian

 

When he was a little older the boy walked to town

To the bus station, and off to a distant war

A jewel sacrificed to the blasphemy of the State

You’ll find his name at the base of a stone

 

But the pewter knight and the plastic Robin Hood

And beautiful Lady Marian still wait for him

 

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