I once had upon the mantelpiece

A sand picture housed between 2 glass panels

Prized as a child for its innovative charm

I owned a tape cassette and listened

to a song of moonbeams hidden

Adventure revealed in the depth of tone

But the picture was sharply rejected

by your newly acquired sophistication

And when you sang the words

The song rang hollow

 

Years later,

On hearing the song again

Halcyon ways urged me

To lay down new tracks

To overlay the fading memory

of life’s inequities but sand spilled

Leftover on that mantelpiece

Scratching the new tunes down

 

I will keep on coming back

to the place we were before.

Where the moon hid from light.

I will keep on trying

to establish new words

new layers to preserve

the innocence

of an original moment

When music was magical

and sand built castles.