It is easy to remember

It is easy to remember

The song thrush

Under the hedge

In the back garden when I was a boy

Too easy to forget the fire door

Safety check I should have recorded

In the calendar

On my smartphone

But there is no wonder in it.

The song thrush was an easy draw

To watch

As it ran back and forth

With its mate

Tending its spotty-blue treasure,

As bold as brass when it came

To confrontation.

The dog always ran away

As I lay on the grass correlating data

For a project

Filling up an exercise book

With my devotion to the task,

Covering it with patterned paper

Winning a prize

For such dedication.

It is more memorable then than now,

A manchild

In an age-averse community

My heart yearns

For the simplicity of youth

When every day was an adventure

With little expectation of disappointment

A past time

For which I am so thankful.

An accident of birth

When blithe little white boys

Knew nothing of strife,

The poverty and blight

Of other children’s lives

Less fortunate was the boy next door

Just one of twelve

Who wore hand me downs

Two sizes too big for his bones

Old boots

With hobnails and open toes

But was still better off

Than the kids in Africa

Which was a mythical place

To the unknowingly privileged

Who knew only of Tarzan and the Apes

And failed to see the disparity

In opportunity

Until now.

Still privileged.

Looking back

From behind the safety of a fire door

As the sins of the fathers

Are visited upon the young

In a rage of despair

At the damage visited upon

A perfect Eden

By supremacist marauders

Who thought they would be kings

And too many noble yeomen

Believed that ignorance

Was bliss.