Changes

They are tearing down the old to make way for the new.
Humble ranches replaced by towering monstrosities.
First a Kmart, now a Target
A seaside motel replaced by the Ritz.

This used to be a hick island--
A northern Florida beach town with a Southern Georgia sensibility
But rich folks discovered it.
And, like Columbus before them, invaded the native land.

There used to be sand mounds
lining the two-way highway onto the island.
Now there’s a Panera, a Starbucks, and strip mall after strip mall
Hugging four lanes, soon to be six,
Beauty gone, replaced by brick.

Years ago, you drove down the road alone,
And waved if you saw an oncoming car,
You passed Yulee, a one-light town,
And swerved at the dead armadillo on the side of the road.
Now you weave in and out among out-of-towners,
license plates of snow-birds,
speeding down the highway,
on their way to winter homes.

Changes.
Give me the old, the simple, the rusty and tired.
Give me a T-Ray’s burger cooked inside an old gas station.
Give back the simple shack that stood before Grisham built his
mansion.
And give back the thick Southern accents, flavored by a salty sea,
Who told tall tales sure to be lies,
but you believed anyway.
Because you wanted to believe.

Changes.
Coming faster than I’d like.
Once I was the child, running into the water,
Now it’s my children.
Soon their children.
Once I was the child, building castles,
While my parents sat and watched.
Now I’m the parent watching.
Except it’s not just my children whom I’m eyeing to protect.
My parents began the slow process
Of reverting back to childhood,
Of dependence, of stubbornness, of temper tantrums
when told something they don’t want to hear.
They’ve begun the slow dim of their days.

Change.
It’s all around me.
More than ever.
And even though I know it inevitable,
I still want everything to stay the same.