The Places Time Forgot

Somewhere between the ticking clocks, My childhood still runs barefoot on the streets, Where laughter needed no reason to bloom, And happiness smelled of rain-soaked earth.

An old song plays, and suddenly I’m there, Beneath the same sky, with the same wild dreams, Where broken toys were treasures, And goodbye meant only, “See you tomorrow.”

The walls have changed, the faces have grown, The doors still stand, but the souls have flown, And I would trade a thousand tomorrows For one yesterday I never knew was precious.

Oh, time, you thief with invisible hands, Why leave us memories but take back the moments? Why make the sweetest chapters The ones we can never read again?

Perhaps the past never truly dies; It sleeps in songs, in scents, in silent tears, And every time my heart looks backward, I meet the child I left behind through the years.