1. Back to a Time
In a house high on a hill an old man grows weak, many years have gone
and he lies in his old bed. Back in the day Richard was a dashing young
officer with a brilliant red uniform. He had many girlfriends and he
showed them flowers scattered across the mead's and meadows, across
the heaths and glades and over wide glens. Those days were bright, hot
and beautiful and a morning sun was his gold.
Today it is summer and the trees in the forest are rich with green leaves.
They have now darkened and the mighty oaks have begun growing little
acorns. Lying in his bed with the French doors wide open the summer
greets him warmly maybe for the last time. His mind wanders to the past
and he is a young man again walking on the springy turf in a summer
forest. The richness of many scents in a summer breeze return and dusky
odour’s fill the countryside. Those days were special days and there was a
beautiful young girl that will steal his heart.
Her hair was black and her eyes a deep brown she used to follow him on
his walks through the country. He knew she was there but pretended he
did not notice. One summer morning he hid behind an old lime tree as she
walked past he jumped out and startled her. She laughed at his stupidity
and then stared into his bright blue eyes, he instantly fell in love. He had
heard of love at first sight and had always laughed at the thought.
White haired and thin his skin yellow and his eyes sank into wasted
sockets. He looked gaunt and his aged lips quivered. He remembers the
woods and sitting by a sheltered warm bank. New greenery bursting
through it was a beauty and a joy to behold. He tries hard to sit up and to
imagine his long ago self in the beautiful green ripening gardens. Sweet
flowers know him well and respectfully they nod to an old friend who is
going on a journey. As a man who liked to be outdoors he walked and
lovingly tended these landscapes even as a young blade.
He casts his mind way back to his youthful days when he would walk in
the sun with the sweet girl who had stolen his heart, her name was Alice.
He would run up a woodland bank, showing off, his hands on hips. They
would wander miles enjoying wonderful views holding hands kissing
softly at first.
As time passed they lay on spongy turf and held each other so tight. Then
in bright rods of sun that shone through the trees, his hand touched her
breast. Alice smiled her face red, her heart beating, thumping in her chest.
Richard stood up dazed, that moment was so beautiful he knew he would
never forget that small intimacy. With a butterfly in his heart and a deep

2. need in her heart they raced hand in hand across carpets of golden
buttercups. Out of breath they leaned against an oak tree, in the distance
they could hear a spring, watering the nearby mead’s
Today the songs of the birds grow faint, the nightingale is hushed and the
cuckoo bows his head. A nurse tiptoe’s in she quietly and shuts the
French doors. He whispers, she cannot hear him so she bends down and
puts her ear on his lips. It is so faint they barely move he breathes the
words, ‘don't shut the doors the beauty makes me feel safe my old friends
are out there waiting’. She lifts him higher, puffs his pillows adds another
blanket she smiles, ‘Richard you are such a lovely man'.
The blackbird and the thrush perch near the French doors and sing a
musical goodbye very softly. He can now see the Coltsfoot and
cardamine in the fallows with green moss in the moist meadows. The star
of Bethlehem gleams from the copse in the woods it’s a special beauty
from shady places. The celandine and kingcup glow in golden lustre he
watches them his eyes rheumy and tears fall.
Daisies scattered across lawns like patterns in a carpet of lime green. The
elder flower, corn poppy and the viper's bugloss, with a rich azure smile
from his garden. He begins to smile shakily at the crocuses spreading a
purple flood over the near green meadows. Once again he and Alice are
sitting on a riverbank she takes off her shoes and dips her pretty little feet
in the sparkling clear water. Her dress is up and over her knees. Richard
holds Alice by her waist and begins to kiss her. The kisses are passionate
and his lips move from her face to her neck. Alice unties her blouse and
Richard runs his tongue further down and glides over her hard brown
nipples.
He can remember that moment exactly, colour returns to his hollow
cheeks, his ashen old face. That moment took them both to a place they
had never been before. They were sheltered by all the favourites of the
field he picked a violet for Alice, nothing could describe how he felt.
That day painted a landscape in his mind, those were good days. Richard
and Alice would walk arm in arm across the glades and listen to his
wondrous battle stories. These pictures of beauty, he has known since his
early younger days, had burned an image of those days, deep into his
mind. He called quietly to his nurse, ‘do you scent the hay, do you hear
the scythes ringing do you hear sweet laughter’.
The joys of running across green fields as young lovers following breezes
and smelling sweet newly cut grass. These scented breezes fill his room
and his tired eyes close. Happy to return to his precious long gone days

3. and with his last breath he walks arm in arm with a beautiful young girl.
He whispers, ‘Alice,’ one last time. In his last breath as he returns to old
days in sweet old meadows with a beautiful girl by his side.