Legos

It is an image that comes back to me
Time and again:
The four of us playing Legos together
Noisily, on the garage table
On a hot summer's day.

The garage was cool, a happy refuge
From summer's heat.
The hundreds of Lego pieces
Bustling loudly in our busy hands.

We were building toy houses.
This is where I'll put the window.
This will be a door to the kitchen.
I'll put the bathroom here
And these are our beds.

Laughter, happiness ringing out
Above the Lego blocks.
Hours passed, blissfully.
Four children playing together
In innocence and joy.

Whatever love there was, turned to ash.
Leaving bitter seeds for us to digest.
Whatever home we had, was broken.
The toys spilled all over our hearts
And souls, like toys gone mad.

Death and silence triumphant ghosts
ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

But in my heart I still can feel
a faint smile come to me,
A longing palatable, persistent, strong.

The sun is hot today,
The garage cool, full of my now grown son's toys.
And I dream and wonder
Of  a childhood come and gone,
his and mine, and childhoods yet to come.

May they be sweet and long
Full of joy, and may they be spared
The dark shadow of our family's tragic war.


Trudi Ralston.
April 15th, 2010.

One of the most persisting memories attached to this flashback in my recollections of this particular moment in time, is the sound, like music, of the Lego pieces, and the voices, so happy, so unaware of what was to come. It is one of the most hypnotic memories I have of all four of us playing together, my brother Bart, my sisters Goedele and Ludwina and I, a moment of innocence and happiness frozen in time.
June 1st, 2012.