Spanish Moss

Spanish Moss

The ancient weathered oaks
standing stately and proud
with gray Spanish Moss
worn like a shroud
on their stout reaching branches
spread wide as in a benediction

The old weathered hacienda,
now stands neglected and tattered,
where once it teemed with life
with a bold orange-tiled roof

If you look closely at the trees
As the wind sighs softly through the leaves
You can see the shadow children,
hear their laughter and joyous cries

Vacant windows, now with bare, blind eyes
set in walls that still bleed love
stare at overgrown fields
standing with grain long gone to seed.

Gone now are those days of grace
just shades of a past now lost
that flicker in and out
of limbs thick with Spanish Moss

The ancient weathered oaks
standing stately and proud
with gray Spanish Moss
worn like a shroud
on their stout reaching branches
spread wide as in a benediction


About 5 miles from where I live there is a Spanish style house that has been vacant for over 30 years. It was built soon after I came here and I used to drive by and see kids playing in the old oak trees. A couple of years later it was vacant and has been vacant ever since. No one seems to know whaere the people went. They were just gone one day. The property and house are still there, but it is overgrown and lifeless and since it is in the county and a goodly ways from neighboring houses nothing has been done to it. I have ofter thought about trying to find out who owns it, but then I like the mystery of it also.
Rett