Once....

Once upon a lifetime ago girls came
calling on one another and made their
way together down to the park, giggling
sometimes veering off to the closest
shopping mall, answering the siren call
of fashion and !on sale! clearouts promising
glamour and recognition of their uniqueness.
And in the summer basketball hoops in
driveways, hockey nets on the streets in
winter and soccer madness coloured our
neighbourhood where people walked
along sidewalks and carried bags straight
from the supermarket, a goodly walk but
almost part of the social contract where
you would always recognize a neighbour
even those living on the street behind your
own. The children have left with their
mature years to take up their own residence
elsewhere and on your street their parents
retired then moved on, replaced by those
who are now what they were long ago.
These are ghost families, neither seen nor
heard, not on the streets, not in their quiet
homes, living in an alter-universe we can
only guess at since their very presence
is a theory. We can only hope they're happy.
The street is not quite void of neighbours
some yet remain to share that memory.