The Bridges of My Youth
© John Antonius Tabah


In a place far from
my childhood home,
a picture of covered bridges hangs
bringing back my memories of my youth
in a Vermont country town.

In the winter I’d walk along those
same railroad tracks to a frozen pond
found beneath the trestle,
where the girls figure-skated
and the boys played hockey.

The car tracks found in the freshly
fallen snow were great to see,
as they sometimes packed a path
to slide on, and sliding down a hill
was always fun for me.

The signal lights by the railroad track
that crossed the road between the two bridges
bring back memories of the times I waited
for the long trains that passed while feeling
the shaking of the ground underneath my feet.

The covered bridges were for all seasons
a place to stay dry when it rained or snowed,
or a place in which to find shade when it was hot,
or even as a place to toss a rock to watch
fall and go plop into the river far below.

The sight of the first bridge’s wide beams
in that picture brings back the vision of
the shadows on the wooden planks
of the boys and girls who squeezed behind them
playing a childhood game of hide and seek.

Between those two bridges was a farm
tended by a farmhand known as “Whitey”
who rode his team of horses
in the summer to cut the fields of hay
and in the snows of winter to pull his sleigh.

Captured by this one picture
my childhood memories are relived
by recalling the fun filled scenes
of a time when the covered bridges
brought to me a contented life.

CHARLOTTE'S WEB   JOHN TABAH'S MENU   NEXT POEM

©2005 Bridge on River Kwai by B J Mair
©2005 Graphics & Design by Charlotte Mair
Java script courtesy of Dynamic Drive