The Mountain Laurel
The Journal of Mountain Life

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from the
Heart of the Blue Ridge


You Can't Go Back

By Geneva Hall © 1987

Issue: October, 1987

At times, all alone and day dreaming
I go back to my childhood home
When Daddy and Mother were still living
Then I was never alone.

In dreams I walk out in the orchard
Where apple tree's bloom and bee's hum
Oh how beautiful the sunset
When the end of the day has come.

There's a big clear spring of cool water
The Lord provided for his children's thirst
The shade trees that cast the long shadows
As the sun sinks down in the West

I go to the old frame farm house
And gently push open the door
Then oh how it hurts when I realize
No one lives there anymore.

The big old fireplace is empty
No wood or ashes or coals
The stair steps all have fallen
I can never climb them anymore

Up there where I kept my play things
My dolls, my books, and my toys
But now all of my dreams have vanished
Like bubbles that burst without noise.