2.27.2014

Next Door

an imitation of “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas


Now I was quick and eager as a young bird in the trees
About the leafy shadows and lonesome as the sun was lone,
            The sky above the tinned roofs cloudy,
                Rain waited and let me run
            Reddened in the shadows of his smile,
And knighted by myself I was Sir of Imagination
And once before I had woken and counted pirate ships
                Chasing the wake of my vessel
            Over the crimson waves of sunset.

And I was flitting like dandelion seeds, spent my days
About the happy grass next door and playing to my fancy
            With that smile and that heart of gold.
                Rain fell quick on tinned roofs
            Reddened by the rear lights of the cars
And the setting sun, till the sky becomes as an abyss,
Red reflections cold on the wet asphalt streak behind me
                And childhood fled

            From the knighted Sir who tamed the Rain.