Re-reading the Past

Came across poetry I'd written a gazillion years ago and kept. It was funny reading all of those poems from up to 30 years ago. Boy are teenagers moody LOL. There was one though that I think was a little futuristic reading it now, so I thought I'd share it, I wrote it in 1981.


1.
When I was just a tiny lad
I'd sit upon my fathers knee
and beg him tell me stories made of
fairy tales and history

I noticed even then it seemed
that as he spoke he also dreamed
with eyes that shon with unshed tears
as he took us back through long gone years

the tales he spun of long ago
of snow white doves and buffalo
of seals that swam in icy waters
and of the sons and of the daughters

and of the men who tamed the land
and I thought it sounded oh so grand
because I didn't understand the price we had to pay
my father knew I'd understand someday

The young man that I came to be
saw not the land and not the sea
nor the quiet darkening of the sky
the absence of night sounds by and by

but as I walked the beach one day
I heard an unfamiliar sound
and turning to look on an oil bound sea
saw a creature almost familiar to me

as memory recalled the name
I felt a fear arise within
and it struck me then that what we'd gained
couldn't ease the emptiness of what remained

I stood and watched the struggling bird
and I couldn't lift a hand
for as I watched his fight for life
I finally saw the land

and I saw the future I'd thought so bright
reflected in a man made light
and heard the warning from my fathers knee
that for to many years I failed to see

suddenly with a triumphant cry, the struggling bird pulled free
and crying still I understood, what this sight was meant to be
but the pain was to great and I turned away
who could I tell and what could I say

so I turned my back and I quickly walked away

as the last bird cried
spread his wings and took to the sky
and the wind mourned his passing
and hushed, with a sigh
that sounded like a word
and it was "why"

2.
the years sped by to soon it seemed
I was trapped inside my own lost dreams
the sight I saw so long ago
the light I'd seen but then let go

the oily slick on the oceans brow
that small trapped bird escaped somehow
to heights so long unseen by man
up through the smog that covered the land

and now I have my own small lad
who asks me "daddy please,
tell me of when birds covered the skies
and fish filled all the seas"

and now my own eyes cloud with tears
as I dream my way back through the years
and pray that my own son will do right
and not turn away but stand and fight

and not close his eyes when he sees the light
I saw the light and I turned away
and the vision I saw still returns today
as I saw the last bird lift, and fly away

and the last bird cried
spread his wings and took to the sky
and the wind mourned his passing
and hushed, with a sigh
that sounded like a word
and it was "why"