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magnolia blossoms and bamboo dreams

what happened to how much we loved life as children?

By R.C. TaylorPublished 12 months ago Updated 12 months ago 1 min read
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magnolia blossoms and bamboo dreams
Photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

What happened to the sweet days

where we watched each magnolia blossom open like a hand

and tried to crack rocks open like eggs to find geodes

we had just learned about in science class

back when knowledge wasn’t yet a burden?

What happened to our smiles?

Did we lose them along the dirt path or

amongst the spry bamboo forest

that shot up to the heavens, canopying our stories

of make-believe and adventure?

Did we hide it in a shoebox under our bed

and forget about it as the song

of trying to fit in was a pied piper who called us

to the other side of the River Styx?

Perhaps the grass in our momma’s lawn

really did want to grow, and it wasn’t just

an excuse to not have to mow and

glug down cold lemonade

as we tried to catch our breath, so tired so tired.

Perhaps all we really wanted to do was grow

and not be cut down.

To not have to learn the bittersweet

fragility of everything.

How do we get back there?

Swim backwards in hourglass sands of time

to the lost oasis in the desert?

Everyone tells us that we can’t get back,

that we have to learn who we are

but is it really true that we have to learn

to love ourselves?

Perhaps it is less about learning

and more about unlearning

a world that taught us to hate ourselves

from the curious words on the tip of our tongues

to the offbeat, dancing sway of our hips,

to the dirty soles of our adventurous feet?

Maybe it is about remembering that

dawn approaches every time we try to smile,

and like magnolia blossoms and bamboo dreams

time waits for sunlight to reveal us again

when we finally remember the way home.

sad poetrysocial commentaryperformance poetrynature poetrylove poems
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About the Creator

R.C. Taylor

Part-time daydreamer. Full-time dork.

Follow along for stories about a little bit of everything (i.e. adventure and other affairs of the heart).

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Comments (2)

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  • Stephanie J. Bradberry12 months ago

    Very beautiful poem. This line brought back great memories for me "tried to crack rocks open like eggs to find geodes". Times like those made me want to be an archeologist or geologist.

  • Shane Dobbie12 months ago

    Lovely and thoughtful. Well done.

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