Eldridge
Brown
Walking down streets
Surrounded by concrete and
steel
Sour smells twist my nose
I turn to a different wind
and remember
Gone are the elder days
Lost are the old ways
No more the minstrel sings
No more the hammer rings
Cars go by ignorant of my
dreams
Apathetic drivers trapped in
small metal glass worlds
Whining sounds, flashing
reflections
My world is beyond their
field of view
The horses whinnied and
pranced
The jousters jostled and
danced
The knight stands proud to
the herald’s call
Forgotten stone castles of
thriving great hall
Dark alleys the sun cannot
reach
Where brief flashes of my
dreams congeal
Then failing, stillborn in my
passage by
I walk on to where they may
take hold
Hounds barking, chasing
through the wild wood
A moment, majestic, the
hind proudly stood
The singing twang springs
from my bow
Unhesitating to the heart
does the arrow go
Out from the urban, past the
suburban
I walk on creating that which
I seek
Away from the substance of the
now which holds me back
I need the shadows of what
were, what may yet be
Triumphant, we each return
with a prize
We hold them up to
appraisal from our old king’s eyes
Presented to the cooks to
prepare for the feast
Merriment, mirth and song
until the sun rises east
Into the wilds, so much like
the dreams
Merely a step away from it
all, it seems
Down hidden path, past
ancient oak tree
I find castle and lady
waiting for me