Poem June 15, 2009 Issue

A MEMORY

Christian

I watch the trees,
I watch them sway,
like ripples on a tranquil pond—
a pond in a distant place.

I hear the sound behind me
of happy sixth graders
playing soccer.
Oh, how good I feel
sitting here this spring afternoon
with the warm sun shining down on my head,
and I think of a day long ago
when I sat with my grandma
beside a pond
on a swing.

She was pushing me
back and forth,
back and forth,
and I was laughing
and loving being with her,
and my mom standing by
watching us.
The sun was shining down
making everything warm.

I feel God's love around me now
as I felt it then
across the span
of time and space—
there is no time,
there is no space,
there is no death.

Laughter brings me back
to this field at my school
with my friends
and the green
and the warm
and the rippling trees,
and I know that nothing
can ever stop that flow
of love.

Christian, 12