[Bonfires]

I remember bonfires by the lake
A flicker of orange against the dark.
I remember never ending summer days,
moments never to return made into memories
that slowly fade.
Memories, like the embers in a dying fire, smolder.
They smolder away.
Faces, voices, I see and hear them all
Dying in the march of time.
Drawn out as on a line,
The farthest dying fastest.
But still I remember bonfires by the lake.
The glowing flicker that danced on all our faces.
When young I never traveled to far-off places.
Yet I would never trade
The dancing flames
For a trip to England to ride upon the Thames.
Would never trade the comforts of our home,
for the history and loveliness of Rome.
For now that I am older, and grown
I can travel the world I never saw when young.
But never will the bonfires by the lake return.
Remember the time? Remember when?
Can't bring back now what was once,
and then,
no more.