Richard Radtke

Old Men Say



Posted: Saturday, May 22, 2010

by Richard Radtke
http://www.cottagebythelane.com

In the park the children play, upon swings that creak and sway, balls thrown, by little hands, fly high, in the cloud filled sky. Over there on benches, shadowed from the rays, old men sit, looking on, "Youth, upon youth is lost", the old men say. We smile, nod, then hurry on, so much must we do today. Yet still, there in the park, the old men sit, and the children under a smiling sun, play.

Childhood is lovely, those old men know, like flowers in the spring, blossoming, their colors so long dreamed, but unseen. Like green grass thats agrowing, from a long winters nap, the snow blanket, disappearing, where now, where is it at, yes..., they know..., childhood, it is so. A flash, a burst of blinding light, quickly going, gone in the dark of the dark, dark night, and one more they know to be true, it is magic..., magic too.

It comes fourth like a budding branch, a bursting thought, a precious gift to be passed on through the years, for the child born, there is a childhood lost. Oh, the magic that lives in a child's heart, growing there deep within, if only they knew, what a precious gift God has given to them, the old men still sit, still stare, "Youth, upon youth is lost," they say.

In a smile lighting up a little ones face, hidden deep, deep within a child's embrace, the magic's there. In a tear, that lightly trails, from the eye to a quivering chin, there is magic hidden there within. A gift that glows, greater than gold, brought by angels, a magic so old, but yet..., it is eternally young, reborn, renewed in the first breath a child breathes, borne deep, deep in the soul. And in the light of their evening sun, the old men sit, and silently stare.

The magic, unknown then, that which is a child's best friend, grows up from depths within, springs fourth, showing in a smile, or precious words, "I love you, too", uttered just before the flick of a light, and on comes the night. Then in the glow of a newborn day, for the child, there are no dreams to far away. But a child is young, a child doesn't know, what a precious gift God gave them, letting it be so. To soon, its gone, before they even know. To quick the child wants to grow, small angels taking wing, here, then away,...into the light of the Day.

"Youth, upon youth is lost", the old men say. And each of us, older now, understand what they say, each in our own sad, lonely way, we all recall of those glorious, glorious days of our childhood past, that float and softly call, but the past... is past... And then as our own children grow, there comes a night following the Day, the day the child does not clutch you quite as tight, and the child doesn't say..., instead only silence, before the flick of the light. That is..., yes, that is the night, when to God above you pray, "Please God, please don't take it away," but yet you know...

Richard R. Radtke lives in Northwest Iowa. Over the years he has been a marine, an editor of a Daily newspaper, a contractor, a purchasing agent. He has worked in Emergency Medical Services for a number of years as an EMT-B and will soon be a paramedic. He has two grown sons, one of whom is married and they have a 6 month old daughter. Richard has a lovely wife. Together he and his wife own and publish four hometown newspapers, that are published weekly. The company is now expanding its job printing business into full color print on demand services for books and booklets.

This Article has been viewed 560 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Kim Condemarin
 1 year 359 days ago.
23 fans.
Richard,
You have such a way of bringing life to every story, in such a way as to pull the reader in to experience it themselves. Thank you so much for yet another great article.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.