The Vacant Lot

All around the city thrums and hums

But here a peaceful acre is

Forgotten in the rushing stream of time

Stilled here, as in a dream

 

A circle where the grasses stand

Their seedy heads bend in the wind

And here and there a dahlia grows

 To show an ancient gardener once worked here

And tended this, once cultivated plot

Now nature is reclaiming and seeding as she will

With dandelion and wild asters

 

Around the plot the tall oaks brood

Giving their acorns to the ground

The grey squirrels happily search and find

Gathering  their winter food

 

Once in this place a house did stand

A family lived and called it home

Now shadows fall on cement stairs

That climb toward an absent door

And now the door is everywhere