Where?

We climb so high
eager souls knowing
the only way down is up,
backwards
like corporate ladders we climb,
some choosing the miles high in the sky
buildings that make us so small
as we stare up into the clouds
knowing that somewhere up there
the ants are busy
scurrying around
moving and shaking
through necessity or need.
Where has the laughter gone?
I gaze at images expecting to see
what was put in the mind as a child,
that only the young can have fun
laughing and being
the innocence always kept as long as it could
for as we grew up
did we fear the falling down part?
Yet I see the faces
etched in smiles and joy
so many years ago it seems
when people had dreams
and the desire to stay young forever,
going up to come down
as the wind broke into our faces
away we went
spinning and sliding and free
to just be
but times have come
and so much has changed
with the onset of fear replacing
the freedom to let go,
to hear the sound of laughter on air
and the timid voice saying please,
can we go again, just once more?
Or a knock at the door
and a trick or treat heard from beyond
by a single child watched
by the horde at the end of the driveway,
on alert
lest the bogey man comes calling on the other side.

I was looking at pictures of a slide at Coney Island? must have been back in the day due to the dress, and there were so many images and I was taken aback to see that all of the shots I saw, were of adults having fun. When did we stop? Halloween saw 7 trick or treaters. When I was a child back in my old hometown, we would have to go out and buy more candy as we would go through the 300 pieces of chocolates bought for the night, 300! The times they are a’changing…..sigh.