Promptly Poetry Entries (6/20 - 6/21)

The Neighborhood

The trees that lined the path are gone,
fallen to buzzing chains and hauled away.
Leaving the birds and squirrels to find new homes
in other trees, outside other windows they play.

I learned the shouted names of children,
quietly have they grown and gone.
I miss the old man always chasin’,
Unheeding dogs on the run.

I see his wife trying to maintain
mowing, raking, white-haired and alone.
My heart understands the pain
of living on when everyone else is gone.

I miss the yellow, one-eyed cat
his bell a cruel betrayal,
a warning to creatures that
might otherwise keep his belly full.

He was, instead, kept full and fat
a prisoner of the orange bowl
that upon the grey porch sat.
No kill to feed his hunter’s soul.

Even the crows abandoned their nests,
they understand these streets are dying.
The morning is still and silent rest,
not even the sound of mourning doves crying.

(I can’t go home at all,
those trees grew too tall,
those neighbors just ghosts.
My childhood so lost)


Written for "Promptly Poetry Challenge (2024-2025)" 

Week # 15

Write a poem about your neighborhood.

Required Form: poet's choice
Line Count: minimum 12 lines, no max