A Meadow of Green and Gold

A Meadow of Green and Gold

A common phrase, oh yes, I know,

but once upon a time;

a girl sat still, remembering,

 and then she began to rhyme.

~

The tale begins, the story starts

in a place rather far away:

a small, verdant, grass-green field;

the perfect place to play.

~

And in this little, sunlit world,

this tiny corner of the globe,

lived a group of children who

 once called this shining meadow home.

~

One fine, enchanted Summer day,

they discovered a long-forgotten path.

And after many hours of fierce debate,

nine girls risked their mothers' wrath.

~

Along a small, dirt road they walked,

through a forest, thick and wide,

until they stumbled on the meadow;

the perfect place to hide.

~

 And in this forgotten, gold-green field

of beautiful flowers, stones and moss,

nine young girls set their minds adrift

and in the shining summer haze, got lost.

~

Gone was the world they once knew,

a fairyland instead, 

and soon, a Queen for the glade was picked,

a ribbon wrapped 'round her head.

~

Each sunny day they could escape,

the girls gathered, big and small;

trekking down the long dirt road;

ignoring their mothers' frantic calls.

~

Each fleeing from their nurse or keeper,

they left to bid their sorrows adieu,

and circled up around their Queen

to embrace their verdant world anew.

~

For every day was unlike the last,

a new tale was waiting to be told.

Each day their leader transformed their meadow,

their meadow of green and gold.

~

And each day their royal monarch treasured,

and spun out a story for all to hear;

for every single day, without fail,

awaited sixteen listening ears.

~

In her domain, she let her mind drift off

to pluck great words from among the clouds.

And then she gathered them all up,

and proclaimed all, brave and loud.

~ 

Some days perhaps, a castle was born,

rising from a cloud, tall and gray.

Others, perhaps, a massive wave swept by

and carried her loyal subjects away.

~

And so the girls spent a year or two

in their grassy, golden glen.

Circled up around their Queen,

who told her stories to them.

~ 

A blessed year, free of of care,

a year in the land of dreams.

A year of blissful ignorance

about the World's wicked schemes.

~

Then, once upon a Winter day,

a day of bitter cold and snow,

the World rose up against the Queen,

and struck her a devastating blow.

~

No longer could she visit her field, green,

nor live in the house she had spent her life.

Her childhood home, her land of dreams,

were completely gone, almost overnight.

~

Torn up from the roots, the beloved Queen

was transplanted somewhere bigger:

A strange new world, called "the city";

a place that was completely different.

~

And all too soon, the years flew by

as the Queen traded her life of green for gray;

and she forgot about her peaceful glen;

well, she forgot until one recent day...

~ 

A ribbon was found, one once thought lost,

ragged, faded, and torn 'round the ends.

The same ribbon used to crown a girl,

the one once tied 'round the Queen's head.

~

A ribbon, a crown, a reminder, a rag,

held in hands small, and young no more.

A piece of cloth from a life left long ago,

that had held witness to summer dreams galore.

~

And so the Summer Queen remembered,

and thought back to treasured days long past;

and many silent, bitter tears were shed

over how our short lives fly by so fast.

~

So what has happened to our Queen,

our Queen of the meadow, green and gold?

Has she left her noble trappings for good,

or has she traveled back to her home of old?

~

Well, while the Queen is now just a girl,

and her crown is just a silken scrap,

our girl has moved on with her dreams

 with a pen and paper in her lap.

~

Those stories told so many years ago

soon find their way to places like here.

The words spilled out to her royal subjects

now are brought forth to reach new ears.

~

Like the story of our Summer Queen,

crowned in ribbon, telling tales wild;

she now lives but in memories,

forever lost in dreams like a child.

~

Her reign? Endless, never forgotten:

our ruling monarch of years gone by,

standing enthroned in summer sunlight

pulling words and stories from the sky.

~

And there you will find her, to this day;

our eternal Queen of summers old;

relating great tales to all who read

of a simple meadow, green and gold.

~~~~~