Googlemap Dreaming In Lawrence, Kansas

By John I. Blair

One mouse click at a time
I’ve been wandering down the streets
Where I spent a host of happy hours
Half a hundred years ago
When I was a young collegian
And life seemed grand and free.

To see, frozen in some recent summer’s
Scorching Kansas heat,
The same long rows of bungalows,
Cottages and gingerbread
Confections I goggled at
(And lived in) then stimulates,

Stirs up memories of endless walks
Down miles of brick-built pavements
Beneath now-vanished elms,
My prairie sensibilities
Stunned by the extravagance
Of carpentry and tree.

Long lifetimes later
I am reassured, relieved,
That some things evidently
Persevere, or are preserved
By love and tons of paint,
(Wishing that would work for me).

©2011 John I. Blair