Drooping Leaves and Stately Trees
by P.H. Wise

Drooping leaves, burdened down with cold raindrops
Hang over climbing ivy, green o’er green
A row of tall and stately trees grows ‘fore the wooden fence
Grown pale and spotted, ivy-streaked with rot

My childhood world, between the fence and trees
And what a world!
Of pirates, army men and submarines
Castles, robots, knights, planes, and bears!

How small it seems today, how very small,
The space between the trees and wooden fence
Now overgrown with ivy,
And the overburdened leaves of stately trees.