Through the years, we have wandered. <br />Down these, narrow lanes. <br />First as children to the schoolhouse, <br />remember the fun and games, <br />hopscotch and blindman's bluff. <br />Remember too the lessons, <br />English and mathematics, <br />we used to hate them both. <br />Then there were the teachers, <br />we had nicknames for them all. <br />But as the years slipped quietly by, <br />quite unnoticed by us all. <br />We had to go to work, <br />spring, summer, winter, fall. <br /> <br />The peel of bells, <br />and the sound of laughter, <br />greeted our Wedding day. <br />As down the lane to the church, <br />we all made our way. <br />But in the distant, echoes of a shattered peace, <br />were to part us soon, <br />as the thunder of a hundred thousand feet, <br />of men marching off to war. <br />Would soon be heard, <br />not a mile from our door. <br />Many of their lives would be stolen, <br />in battlefields far away. <br />Few would return, disillusioned, <br />and full of dismay. <br /> <br />The church is filled with silent payers, <br />for loved ones in a strange land. <br />Where men and boys fight, <br />side by side, hand in hand. <br />But soon the years slipped by again, <br />slowly the war was ended. <br />No one really won. <br />The lives lost on both sides, <br />proved the futility of it all. <br />So once again, we are reunited, <br />but we are strangers as we meet. <br />The war has taken its toll, <br />of my legs and feet. <br /> <br />Time has changed us both, <br />we are not as close as we were. <br />We have to learn about each other, <br />try and sooth the scars of war. <br />Gentle is our first approach, <br />the war has made us cautious. <br />Soon the sound of children, <br />echo in our vacant lives. <br />Memories are rekindled, <br />of our earlier times. <br />So down the narrow lanes we wander, <br />as we’ve done so many times before, <br />but its with new young lives we go. <br />Let’s hope they will succeed, <br />where we have failed before. <br /> <br />11/2/1980<br /><br />David Harris<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/through-the-years-3/
