Tales Of The Old Town (Part 07) Poem by Kim Barney
Tales Of The Old Town (Part 07)
The dirt was warm between my toes;
my bare feet had turned tough.
In summertime we wore no shoes,
unless the road was rough.
There was one street that had been paved;
the others were just dirt.
On one of these I walked along,
and I had shed my shirt.
I had a red rash on my chest
and had to get some sun.
That's what the doctor told my mom,
so let his will be done!
There were no traffic lights in town,
and stop signs, only two.
From one way, tourists have to stop
while natives go on through!
I passed the schoolhouse on my walk,
two classrooms; that was all!
Would my old teacher still be there
when I went back next fall?
There's Clark, the bully, standing there
in front of Rosie's store.
I'd thought that I was going there,
but I'm not anymore!
I hide behind an apple tree
on mister Thurston's lawn,
and make darned sure he can't see me,
and wait there ‘til he's gone.
Then just when I appear again
from out behind those boughs,
my dad shows up to pick me up;
it's time to milk the cows!
Some names have been changed to protect the guilty and the innocent.
There are still no traffic lights in my old home town. I think there may be more than two stop signs now, but most intersections still don't have them.
When I was a kid, the paved road stopped one block from my house. Now I think it goes two blocks further than it did. There are also other paved roads in town now.
The old school house has been torn down. One classroom had grades 1-3 and the other had grades 4-6. Students are now transported by bus to another town about seven miles away. That change was made when I had completed 5th grade and was going into 6th.
When it was time to milk the cows, I always wore shoes. I never went barefoot in the cow corral!
I wish I could recall the name of the rash that the doctor said I had. (No, it wasn't the same rash caused by the gravel in the previous poem!)
Anyway, he said it was caused by a lack of sun. Now in later years I have had a history of skin cancer, and if that doctor were still around, to use the words of one of my grandmothers, I would like to "slap him to sleep"!
I enjoyed this pretty poem, sir Augusto......10+++++++++++++++
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/3/2024 2:12:50 PM # 1.0.0.1119
I haven' t yet read the other part of this series yet I have read your poem " Tales Of The Old Town (Part 07) " which says about your native place of the past having many memories and situations. Beautifully penned. A 10
Read the all, Kumarmani, read them all! All you have to do is keep clicking 'previous poem'. Thanks for the comment, old friend.