When We Ran Free

When We Ran Free

There was a time when we ran free,
Chasing the wind through yards and streets,
Adventures sparked by scraped-up knees,
Our laughter loud in summer’s heat.

We stayed out late till streetlights hummed,
No screens to steal our dreams at night,
The world was ours to climb and roam,
Each dusk a call, each dawn a flight.

We made our stories, forged our games,
With sticks as swords and trees as towers,
No flashing ads, no endless scrolls,
Just childhood ruled by fleeting hours.

Saturday mornings, colors bright,
Heroes leaped from flashing screens,
But soon enough, our mothers called—
“Go outside!”—we left unseen.

Barefoot, breathless, caked in clay,
Grass-stained knees from games we played,
Hosed down laughing in the yard,
Sunset gold on faces swayed.

The fields we roamed stretched wide and far,
Unbound by walls, untouched by screens,
And though time pulls us ever on,
That childhood magic never leaves.