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.