As I return to  my childhood refuge
How distant it all seems to be
Strange figures like apparitions
Appear to beckon me
Shadows of my yesterdays
Move slowly in timeless space
Murmuring words that only I can retrace

Skeletons from my youth walk silently
Through the streets
Forbidding
I can recognize the dead but not the living
I remember their thoughts and what was said
Memories I cherish memories I keep
Though all have now fallen to sleep

The streets are the same and so are their names
With their houses full of life and brightly lit
The sound of the city reverberates
But I can’t hear it
For at long last have gone
Those familiar spirits

Although the spirits have departed
The hopes and aspirations are no longer there
The portals are closed the dreams disappear
But the memories never end
Nothing can or will replace
For nothing will be the same again
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Haunted House
“The stranger at my  fireside cannot see
The  forms I see ,nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but  perceives what is; while unto me
All that was has been is visible and clear.”
Longfellow