Boy in Blue

7 October 2014

A short (and unusually) rhyming poem about a little feeling, a sense memory, connecting to the past…

Remember, and in doing so, be transported. But you should know: there’s no way back.

One brief moment was all it took,
Unburdened abandon in this brown boy’s look.
He and his friend crossing the road,
First left then right and over they go.
A skip in their step on this Friday afternoon,
They wear baggy t-shirts both shades of blue.

But my stare stays fixed on the boy to the right,
The sun in his eyes a measure too bright
But he won’t bat an eye, no, he won’t look away
‘Cos the world has no hold on him this glorious day.

Then a spark, brief and pure and connected
To some memory the world’s since tested.
A recollection of a boyhood hope,
Before the knots, before the rope.

And just like a spark that sears behind the eyes
This briefest moment lingers and I’m made to realise
That I once was this boy, young, sun-drenched and free
But I lost my way to the weight of all that’s unseen.