These Fields And Hills Beyond Recall

This land used to have many fruit trees

Hills covered in dunks and every gap had goose berries

Every where I went I saw butterflies

Some in every color and some had patterns like eyes

Evenings late when it got dark

Fireflies lit the pastures with their intermittent spark

I remember when we walked for miles non-stop

Eventually resting on a hill top

Looking back at the splendid topography

Dispersed settlements of people amidst natural scenery

Sometimes before dust, you might see a mongoose

And even the domestic dogs would run lose

No leashes required and still fewer dog bites

Dogs respected your space and carefully chose their fights

Hardly a bus or a car but you might see a donkey cart

I can still hear their “Hee Haws” when their depart

Lashes on their backs with a bull whip

Low tolerance by their masters if they should hesitate or slip

So beautiful was this country, I understood why tourists came

But now things are far from being the same

Every gap is now a street and busy with cars

Yesteryears topography now has bricks and concrete scars

On that hill top where we would rest and observe the scenery

Now is a large home that belongs to an overseas celebrity

Dragonflies and ponds are now long gone

Rural patches have urbanized to a gated environ

Even the beaches where we once entered freely

Can’t be traversed anymore by each and every body

And back where I grew up, what used to be a pasture

Live the aristocrats in homes like they out of the future

Lots of people now shop in some strange Mall

     These Fields And Hills are Beyond Recall