John James Piatt - Genius Loci

Yes, this is the place where my boyhood
Saw its butterfly season depart:
The butterfly fluttered in sunshine,
The chrysalis lies in my heart!

Still green are the hills in the distance,
And breathing of summer the farms,
But the years take the Present forever
To the Past with their shadowy arms.

I wander in pathways familiar:
Old faces forget, or are blind;
The footsteps of strangers have trodden
the footprints I deem'd I would find.

Come back to me beautiful visions!
Steal over me lovelier sky!
With the flower-like soul of my boyhood,
Blossom, sweet days gone by!

My boyhood, come back! In the sunshine
A hoop is the world of his care:
He gazes at me for a moment,
And passes away in the air!

Come back! From the school that is ended
Boy-faces rush joyous and bright:
One, only, among them remembers
And vanishes into the light!

Come back! With a kite in his heaven
His heart's happy wings are agleam:
He hearkens my call for a moment,
And flashes away with my dream!

John James Piatt

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