Songs of Boyhood Memory

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Cobblestone Nights

Grey-haired now, respectable yet vigorous
In hotchpotch memories, I see in half-remembered,
Boyhood, night-time dreams.

Trucks and milk-floats
Clattering by, and
Toy soldiers lined in battle.
Building blocks and grassy stains on lily knees.

How do such fleeting images
Float to consciousness?
Who stands guard at the feeble gates
Of my memory?

Irregular, yet comforting,
Time moves on: but
My memories of rattle-stone, boyhood
Awakenings stand
Sentinel
Still.

March 2006