/lit/ - Literature

when i was a schoolboy
there was a big wide field that stretched on and on
with lalang grass that came up to our scraped knees
Full of grasshoppers and crickets that we'd catch and put in plastic bottles

I would lie down on the slope upon the grass, and just look at the sky.
A blue so deep and bright it hurt my eyes
in the afternoon heat I would hear the lazy trill of the cicadas on the trees
and the distant, faint sound of the gurkhas playing their bagpipes
dancing, floating over the field and filling me with something...

Seeking solace as an adult I went back recently
the field is gone now
replaced with concrete and a rubber running track
red with crisp numbers and hard edges
modern, clean, sterile
no more grass, no more crickets, and no more music
time has moved on
the world had changed

nothing remains but the dust of our youth and the ghosts of the past