When Hope Was Green Poem by Barry Middleton

with hope the spring anticipates
the world was a road to everywhere

I basked in the glow of a sunny day
composing songs to change the world

I stayed until the darkness fell
the western sky in streaks of gray

the muted shadows lost their hue
and melody became a dirge

and still the road leads on to roads
as seasons pass like setting suns

and poets pen their winsome lines
within the rhythms of their breath