Yes, this is the place where my boyhood <br />Saw its butterfly season depart: <br />The butterfly fluttered in sunshine, <br />The chrysalis lies in my heart! <br /> <br />Still green are the hills in the distance, <br />And breathing of summer the farms, <br />But the years take the Present forever <br />To the Past with their shadowy arms. <br /> <br />I wander in pathways familiar: <br />Old faces forget, or are blind; <br />The footsteps of strangers have trodden <br />the footprints I deem'd I would find. <br /> <br />Come back to me beautiful visions! <br />Steal over me lovelier sky! <br />With the flower-like soul of my boyhood, <br />Blossom, sweet days gone by! <br /> <br />My boyhood, come back! In the sunshine <br />A hoop is the world of his care: <br />He gazes at me for a moment, <br />And passes away in the air! <br /> <br />Come back! From the school that is ended <br />Boy-faces rush joyous and bright: <br />One, only, among them remembers <br />And vanishes into the light! <br /> <br />Come back! With a kite in his heaven <br />His heart's happy wings are agleam: <br />He hearkens my call for a moment, <br />And flashes away with my dream!<br /><br />John James Piatt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/genius-loci-2/
