“Where I’d Like to Go” by Walter Weinschenk

"Where I'd Like to Go"

I don’t want to go to Paris,

No I don’t;

And I don’t want to sit

On an old stone seat

At the Coliseum;

I have no urge to stand

In a Scottish field

Or linger beneath

A lattice wheel

That turns in tedious rhythm

Atop a mill

In Amsterdam.



Oh, but I’d give my world

And so much more

To sit, once more,

Upon that step

In my old house

Where once I sat,

Now long gone,

Too young to read

But deeply immersed

In a picture book

In which I saw,

One fine day,

Row upon row

Of ancient seats

That fill the Coliseum,

And gorgeous heather,

Mystic green,

Across a Scottish field,

And thought I heard

The creak and churn

Of a windmill’s wheel

Coming from those pages

And saw,

As though I were right there,

Parisian men and women,

Stately and deliberate,

Sitting at tables along the street,

Starring at traffic passing by,

Discussing fantastic things;

And all the while,

Upon that step,

Now long gone,

I prayed that mother

Would take me

To those far-off places,

At that moment,

Then and there. 

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