Thoughts scatter
… like dry leaves in an Autumn wind…
… 60’s child growing up in outer-suburbia- shadows
when children owned the streets and roamed in safety
– after-school-care was a an adventure in the nearby swamp
or vacant lot… trees our look out towers
no thoughts to falling or scraping knobby childlike knees…
innocence was so innocent back then…
and tasted of stolen passionfruit
and honeysuckle blossoms… and one cent lollies…
sepia comics and homemade kites that tangled
in trees we never thought too tall to climb…
Mamas & Papas spilled from open windows
This is Ded-i-cated to the One I Love
and the Rascals
People Got To Be Free…
Curtis Mayfield
People Get Ready there’s a Train Comin’
…we watched Pollyanna & Mary Poppins
and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
and sang all the songs with innocence…
…the harsh details of the war
in Vietnam were softened
by my mother… who shooed me into my room
when the news was on…
…70’s child growing up “on the road”
temporary backyards in towns that differed with the seasons…
faces never stayed the same and even though the scenery changed
she felt at home in every valley and mountain range…
as summers merged into summers and winters mirrored winters
She grew with the trees and flowing rivers…
isolation became the norm… and vague the memories
of being suburban-born…
books replaced the TV… and songs are just poetry with music
sun-watching and moon-gazing filled the silent spaces
when poetic thoughts were scratched in the back of her home school English book…
… too soon it seemed her nut-brown body had desires to grow
she blossomed in soft rounded curves… and let her hair flow
nubile changes… and a deeper turn of mind
and she left the pure innocence of childhood behind…
SharonleeGoodhandImageweaver ©
Feed Your Soul & Free Your Spirit 
What glorious magic your images and words are. They flow from a soul and heart pure and free.
Hello Rebecca, I do recall those early preteen days as being quite innocently magical.
Lovely to see you, thank you for reading and commenting.
It is always enjoyable to pay you a visit, one never knows what magic awaits.
Many thanks Rebecca… Days are long and nights longer, and as I live alone I have many hour to fill.
I often wonder if my posts are boring, since most people (on multiple sites) only hit the like or follow button and don’t say anything… as we’ve discussed before.
Take care.
This child was mid summer born, and grew up in the even more innocent 40s and 50s. Otherwise we had a lot in common.
This poem sure took me back.Brilliant.
A pleasure to share with you… I believe it does us good to keep our inner child playing and smiling… life can be too serious and too sad sometimes.
Boy is that true. I find it easier to look back as I age and like these times less. Yet I try to keep in this world. Far too many get lost in the past as they age. I try not to.
I agree… it’s not good for the mind and spirit to get lost in the past.