The Lost Path

(My take on a Dave Matthews song that I like called The Dreaming Tree)

I

The chair creaked silently
And the old man turned to me
"Before tall buildings took away the sunshine
There stood greenfields where black-winged sparrows used to fly"
Feeding the birds down by the brook
He would dream the dreams of youth
The promise made to the girl he first kissed
And watched children play under summer trees
Progress robbed simplicity
Established a hollow novelty
A brick wall for a view
And a shadow on the morning grass dew
Worked hard till a dime changed to gold
Gave a little to the brethren soul
"A rich man's fortune I gladly amassed
And little did I notice the things that I passed"
As time slowly changed endless greenfields
To the dead-end of the street
He remembered what his mother once said
"No matter what some treasures never fade"
And now in the ageing sun of the day
He longs to be where black-winged sparrows play
And before the fall of dark
He hastens to catch the song of the last skylark

II

Sitting by the window
Faded beauty in the warm glow
She remembers the little girl dancing in frills
To the sound of flutes in the distant hills
Confident of a future that was hers for the taking
She worked hard for fame's slippery fortune
Friends, gladly did they come when riches were many
But shallow was the promise of a dream once held dear
And turning she says
"I wish I had the  strength to leave it all,
for the clear sound of the water-fall"
And she thinks of what her father said
"As you dance oft to the bagpiper's song
The bone-chilling cold vanishes ere long"
I could see her gazing at the Blue hills
constant in an ever-changing landscape
A place of sweetest comfort
Sleeping beauty in a mountain hut
A time of innocent dreams
and a hope that conquered fear
And with a smile that hid it all
She battles once again the darkness that is life
For true was the call of the bagpiper's tune
As she hastens to claim a lost fortune