Realm

Realm


Down the dirt path

Past the algae stone creek

Where the neighborhood

Pot and bees grew,

Stood the old tree house

Built before my birth,

Shunning the earth.

An impressive thing

Of rotting boards and nails,

Defying me to climb higher.

And there,

Amid the ivy

And the Joe-Pye Weed

Stood my mystic waking dream:

An old playground

Rising from the place where

The old school did not.

Steel monkey bars,

The forever slide,

And the skeleton swing.

This was the kingdom

Of my imagination,

And mine alone.

Never too close,

Never to touch.

The tall weeds were infested

With snakes I was warned.

Still,

I journeyed there

In my mind

A thousand times and more,

Never quite sure enough

To go all the way.

But if I could go back

I would,

Take my machete

And my dog

Past the ivy

Past the Joe-Pye weed,

And with the full force of

My battering ram imagination,

Storm the castle gates,

And rule there forever.


~Darkling Plain, Aug. 24, 2006