Remembered Roads Poem by Liilia Talts Morrison

Long ago I lived on roads
Spanning years and decades
Circumstances brought me back
Driving through those places

Pressing on my mind and heart
Concrete patterns entered
Feelings rising at each bend
And then slowly ebbing

Flashbacks rose of friends I met
Long ago forgotten
Some I left and some left me
For so many reasons

Once those ficus trees were small
As I ran in high heels
Now my feet are clad in clogs
Bending back, hair fading

Suddenly a breeze wafts by
Lightening my feelings
Time plays games on mind and soul
House of cards so fragile

Here's a street my son sang songs
Just before he left us
Over there an alley lurks
Where youth changed forever

There has been so much I hid
In dark, hidden places
Locking doors of memory
Way too hard to open

There were partings, quick goodbyes
While I was pretending
Breaches could be mended soon
Smiling, slowly dying

Now I pass that salty beach
Where tall waves are crashing
Just as they so often did
When I danced with sea oats

Many were the blue moons then
Under streets once sandy
They are well paved now and strange
Where I am a stranger

Sudden tears fall on my blouse
As the car keeps rolling
On those fateful, timeworn paths
Littered with past longings

How can I bear in one day
Seeing life pass by me
How can I find rest tonight
With so much to ponder

Yet I know this trip will stay
Woven in my fabric
Making patterns rare and fine
On my field of being

May I thank the source of life
For the day now ending
And for guiding me this way
For his special reasons

May the people whom I left
And those who have left me
Also find new paths to tread
In their times and seasons

When it's time to rest tonight
I'll trust you have rendered
Sights you wanted me to see
Roads I once remembered.