Oak forest

I remember when these oaks
             were planted
a tight cluster of eighty saplings
             a made-to-measure forest
or at least one in the making
             this was back then
when the road was widened
             to cope with the boom in traffic

I would cross these fields as a boy
             on my way to my first school
where I learnt to write
             with chalk on slate
The games I’d play
             the conkers and the marbles
and my pockets always bulging
             with victories
and I remember how I revelled
             in the simplicities of life
never dreaming that one day
             all my certainties would fall away

John Lyons