Once there was a garden of long weeds,
Stalks of wheat and grass to my untrained eye.
The grasses abounded
With mosquitoes and flies
Biting at my young arms.
And my legs ran by, hurrying to enter
The dark, smoky room of games,
Old and new. The tight togetherness
And the pounding excitement
Of descent into a mystical dungeon,
With a sweaty release of energy.

Expansion of the shopping center
Destroyed the charm.
An underground coolness
Yielded to family lameness.
The weeds- cleared in favor of a movie theater,
And the Gap and Express stormed in.
The old movie theater- castrated.
Its remnants reestablished as Applebees and Victoria’s Secret.

Traffic lights now clutter the streets,
Forcing my brother’s and my hockey games
Onto a side road, where we sigh,
And yearn for the time when
Flies and mosquitoes ruled the land.