I WAS YOUNG ONCE


The city across the bay

Rises into the night sky

Lighting the waters

In streaming waves

The lapping on the shore

Cold water on bare feet

The sound of the foghorn

The bridge ever present

San Francisco standing tall and bright

I take her hand

See through my eyes

The memories of a child

See the buildings one after another

Rising to the sky

The old swamp now gone

Where we played as pirates

New people lay claim to what

Not my youth

But the land

And what once was

I said I would never return again

Yet here in my mind

I see old friends

Still as children

Even though that was long ago

I remember the ice cream shop

Sneaking into the Tiburon Playhouse

To watch a western

Going to school

And the playgrounds

Filled with laughter

Simpler times of kickball and tag

Summers filled with joy

Swinging from a rope on the old tree

Walking on the railroad tracks

Hearing the train pass by in the night

Brother and Sisters

Before life became complex

Relationships built a word

Playing games in the open hills

Watching the houses take over

And a fire etched in the night

Burning the hill across the way

Then the grass growing back green with delight

I still know the names of neighbors

For miles around

These were the times of peace

Of helping friends and smiling and waiving

How the world has changed

And I with it

But I remember

And have my feet in the cold water


Michael V Hechtman