Memory Lane

I long to walk through the fields of my youth
I have a forlorn wish to return
But now there is concrete and galvanised steel
And they're building a car park on memory lane.

The fields were green with a tangle of briars
And we played together or gathered flowers
The children are grown and the wild roses are gone
And they're building a car park on memory lane.

I could climb up the ramps to the topmost floor
And look out over the city crawling with cars
I long to tear all the ugly walls down
And clear all the debris from memory lane

Suppose I could plant roses and briars again
Yet I still could not turn all the many years back
And where are the friends I used to know then?
It would not be the memory lane that I knew

I long to walk through the fields of my youth
I have a forlorn wish to return
But now there is concrete and galvanised steel
And they're building a car park on memory lane.

November 2002