When I was a child <br />I saw fireflies, <br />fly passing secretly at night. <br /> <br />The world was full of wonderful things <br />and there were trees <br />with bird nests and eggs <br />of white and pink and blue <br />and with spots on them. <br /> <br />I could shoot a true shot with my kettie <br />and the blue fishing rod <br />took carp, blue kurper, yellowfish <br />and catfish from streams. <br /> <br />Doves or fish fillets <br />from glowing wood embers, <br />tasted delicious <br />and the world was a great place. <br /> <br />At the marsh plovers jumped up and down <br />and like wounded birds, as if with a broken wing <br />tried to entice you away from their nests <br /> <br />Aloe and protea bushes were all over the kopjes <br />and prickly pear, wild peach, mispil and stamvrugte <br />were everywhere on the ridges. <br /> <br />The world of a child faded away with time. <br />But when I went back as a adult; <br />a highway runs right through the hillocks <br />and there are houses where there was marsh <br />and the streams are full of rubbish and litter <br />and I see how progress has destroyed nature.<br /><br />Gert Strydom<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-i-was-a-child-9/
