I Have a Longing....

I-75 North…
You know the spot…
Where the road starts to narrow…
And the trees grow thicker…
There’s an exit sign…
It always tugs at my heart…
A wave of nostalgia washes over me…
A longing for days long past…
Bittersweet memories…
A Melancholy…
Cousins in sleeping bags…
Lying in the back of Grandpa’s pick-up truck…
Looking up at a vast sky…
Full of the brightest stars…
You just don’t see star like that anymore…
Campfire’s, stories, laughter…
Walking barefoot down dirt roads…
Pontoon boats and “fun islands”….
Falling asleep on the beach…
All lined up next to each other…
Pop Kell…
He always had a story to tell…
I can still see his smile…
And his hard working hands…
His white t-shirt and blue jeans…
I can no longer hear his voice…
But if I listen closely…
I can hear it in the sound of the crashing waves…
Or the whispering wind in the trees…
He is all around me….
If I look closely…
I can see him…
In the beautiful shimmering waters…
He is out there…
Just like those vast starry skies…
The one’s that you don’t see anymore…
You know they are still there…
You just can’t see them right now…
I have a longing…
For days long past...