The Sundowner's Return

Hutt News, Volume 16, Issue 12, 19 August 1942, Page 8

The Sundowner's Return

re reached the city at close of day Ay the (lying sun lit the distant streets; lis dollies were; dirly. and worn were they r,ut hope lent strength to his halting I'eet. • onielhin;;' had called him from over the plain, A Ions; instinct he could not deline ; t had burned in his heart like a smouldering ilame And brought him back after all this time. And this-was the place he so, longed lo see After years of wandering up and down, And his eyes lit up with expectancy As he eagerly entered old home town. The people stared as they passed him by, Sundowners in town were very rare; Home looked at hiui with 'disdainful eye Dill he did not notice, nor did ho care. He traversed the streets he once knew so well Hut the old-time haunts he could not place, Progress had done its work too well, And the colour drained from his tired face. For'l liia was a city he dirl not know, "Oil God!" what a change in a few short years! Surely he'd known that it would lie so. And his heart grew, faint with foreboding fears. Noise and clatter of ceaseless feet. An endless stream of hooting cars; Gone were the quiet glamorour; streets He'd so often dreamed of under the stars. And where was the home he had come to see 2 ■ Where the old folks had lived In days gone by. lie would see it always in memory", Uut never again with his natural eye. No trace of the gate where they had stood He and Mary so long ago. What of the promises never made good ' And what of who'd loved him so.' Hc'had forgotten as oft men do Had she waited long? he could not. tell. But how could a waster like him be true ' And maybe for her it was just as well. Nothing to find at the journey's end Aftrr weeks of tramping to reach his goal, He was an out-cast without a friend The wheels of time had taken its toll. Not. a hand to shake, no one to meet; His heart grew sick with a gnawing pain As lie stumbled back through the crowded streets And silently took to the loud again. —N.B, Lower Hutt.