now upon the pillow of my childhood

now upon the pillow of my childhood

that seducer of thoughts

although many a tear

was shed in secret there

many a fear

was caressed to sleep 

down the corrugated black lanes 

where every boy and girl is blended

into our childhood pal 

gilded of grime

slicing the sunshine into the ways

of the days that ran

tumbling wings-on-heels

eyes screaming laugh-wide

and nostrils full of the pollen 

from corners around corners

the high jumps or the hands and knees 

down amongst the clod turned bugs

and bitten by the webs of breath

that rasped in the stitch of beating

the boundaries of our growing domain

every ruin reborn in a fantasy 

bartered and battled between friends 

in dreams upon the warm-handed stones

and clawed close beneath fingernails

of hands that clapped in gingham chases 

or seated tight in conversation 

not on the ruins 

of the grownup’s somewhere else 

but here on our seats 

with the sun’s breath hot upon our necks

that promised this day is yours

those were the seats

so is this is why I push my face

deep into the pillow of my childhood

where my clenched eyes are dry of the tears

that flowed so readily back then

upon grazed knees that beg to go back 

but the castles of summer have fallen

and yet the gold dust is