Member Poem

Rambling down the block
soft purple springing under my tennis shoes
my steps carry me back
Far back
to the days of
creaking fences
and black stone sentinel dogs
subject to thickly clinging ivy
Crimson candle leaves struggling
to hang on their mother trees
just a while longer
as their fallen friends
are beckoned by the crisp breeze
into my fluttering jacket-tails
Good luck held
by the empty red leash in my grip
slithering behind me as I
duck
under criss-crossing clotheslines
(what a mouthful to say back then)
that were strung between houses
I clung to that leash
wherever I wandered
And dragging after me
wearing down my ankles
was my dragon slaying companion
my rusted blue and silver scooter
Storm Rider
following doggedly
through the clumpy browning grass
and crushed lavender
past the neighbor’s yards
and down the hill