I close my eyes

and that back gate opens

The laughter of a little girl

fills the open space

As the sun shines down

past the redwood next door

and all is as it was meant to be

Until I open my eyes again

and remember I was only dreaming

and things aren’t what they used to be

The promises of yesterday

vanished with her memory

and there’s nothing I can do

to bring any of it back

This space will never be the same

the meaning lost to history

only to be captured

in pictures of times before

I’m probably the only one

still struggling to cling to

some sense of what’s supposed to be

that keeps slipping through my fingers

I close my eyes again

and shake it all away