Back to Livermore

I’ve been away for days and years

Gone for seasons, having left with tears

Though over time my tears have dried

“You can’t go home”; well, heck, I tried

 

My home town once so small and quaint

Has grown until, well, small it ain’t

The fields where I went on many hikes

Now houses, kids, and electric bikes

 

The single main street, highway it was

Is cut up, half blocked, “modern”, abuzz

With cafes and boutiques, shop and store

Offering what self-respecting cowboy never wore 

 

The Value Giant exists no more

It’s now an Army Surplus store

That has within not a single thing

That ever heard service men’s boot heels ring

 

The old flag pole is long down and gone

A new one stands up to meet morning’s dawn

But that’s okay cause gone then too

Are three bullet holes fired straight and true.

 

The house I grew in, once clean and neat

Seems now from a ghetto movie set on the street

Orange, purple, tan and black

Lawn is gone, as well as the trees out back

 

Two blocks over the High School yields

Hundred Fifty year old building, lots and fields

Lots are gone, fields are as well

Covered in new buildings, and new school bell

 

Starks Bargain House once treasure filled

Gone as certain as if it had been killed

And just as dead the old train depot

That serves croissant now as a dinner roll

 

Baranass’ Pond dried up when I went to look

No fish to tempt with baitless gold hook

And where the ancient vineyards once gripped the ground

No hundred year old burls are left to be found

 

Cement bridge where bikes once raced on wood

And arroyos’ now concrete for “community good” 

Homes and businesses line Vasco, our old drag strip

No memories left here, just not worth the trip

 

A Safeway’s where once homemade cannon roared

Tall buildings where once barn owl soared

Gone the freedoms my youth flexed without fear

Never understanding then all freedom’s so dear

 

Rail lines moved, and now with underpasses

Allowing constant movement for all the masses

Who are in too great a hurry now anyways

For the gentle pace of my bygone days

 

So the parks are idle, lonely, and quiet

The pigeons emaciated, on forced diet

The once green lawns covered in yellow flower

Call me back to how late is the hour

 

My tour is done, no friend’s been found

Around this once pleasant country town

Gone to hell as so many before

Changed forever by “civilization’s roar”

 

So I’ll give up the chase and leave my dreams

To morph into whatever future deems

I’ll come back to this city now nevermore

Seeking my old childhood’s treasured Livermore

 

©Copyright 2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved