ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
Maureen Clifford © The #ScribblyBarkPoet


The sun rises each morning and the songbirds sing their song
and every day is beautiful but every day is long
and living just gets harder and perhaps I was just wrong,
‘cause Alice doesn’t live here anymore.

We had such expectations when we moved here from the town
we knew the place was tired and the old house quite rundown
but we had our love to live on and we smiled and rarely frowned -
but Alice doesn’t live here anymore.

The dreams we shared together seems are over now and gone
our hopes have long been shattered and perhaps our race is run
and those green, green fields of clover dried and withered in the sun,
that’s why Alice doesn’t live here anymore.

We planned to age together and we planned to live the dream,
we planned to raise a family but life ain’t what it seems.
Somewhere we lost the magic and we lost our self esteem
and Alice cannot live here anymore.

It would be nice to go back and our youth to reclaim,
to take back all the harsh words but that would be in vain.
They can’t now be retracted, they hurt and did defame
and Alice won’t come back here anymore.

The sun still shines most mornings and the air’s full of birdsong
I guess the days are beautiful and know the nights are long,
perhaps if I’d been honest and admitted I was wrong
then Alice would still meet me at the door…
but Alice doesn’t live here anymore.

I guess the world is full of Alice's today, Maureen.
We've mostly all lost something or someone along the way,
and there seems to be no way to fill the void again.

Terry

That's a lovely piece of writing Maureen but so sad. Losing someone under any circumstances is a forever hurt to the heart.
Wazza

Very hard to overcome some of those shattered dreams Maureen, but as you point out the birdsongs and the sunshine are still there, which helps, but only over time.
Well written and full of feeling.
Cheers
Ron

Thanks fellows for those lovely replies

So poignant, Maureen - a sad yet lovely poem that depicts so many situations of immeasurable loss.