Death Of My Childhood Place Poem by Ulysses Cabinatan

I miss the place so much
where I could climb trees
ate star apples and green mangoes
from fruit trees near our house

bath in the river
made a raft
out from banana or bamboo trunk
go boating with my brother
and enjoyed swimming in the river

Where we made a makeshift dam
got some catfish
or played with the tadpoles
and shooed away the frogs

and on rainy day
played with my childhood friend
creating pots and anything from the mud
forming clay vases and figurines
and enjoy the drizzles of the rain

But father sold the place
and we moved to an urban zone
where trees don’t bear fruits
and fruits are not on trees but in groceries.
and clays are beneath the cemented road
and during rainy days
people will not go out
and everyone seems so busy on
their business and their job

so in grief of my childhood place
and gone with it is my childhood stage