- By Rowland Hughes
Child in the Café

Sat in the toy corner,
withdrawn from the
conversations around him.
He opens a world of
imagination, where the
wooden blocks are
windows into his own
world.
The lights above his head
are giant stars that move
with the hurricane of an
opened door.
He has little past to linger
into dark rooms, only the
magic of an uncluttered
mind.
For a moment, he closes
his eyes, not to shut
out the light, but to peep
beyond the sky's horizon.
He takes no clues from
what has been, his thoughts
are new born from a soul
that is still free.
There are smiles from those
who look on, but what he sees
remains secret.
Though his world will be broken,
when memory's shadows dim
his bright lights,
and his imagination will wander
to what might have been.
Rowland Hughes is a Welsh writer and poet. He was born, and lived until his late teens, in the Rhondda Valley, from where he still draws most of his inspiration. He worked as a Master Decorator and studied trades in the construction industry. He later became a Local Authority Assistant Surveyor. Due to ill health, he retired in 1997. In 1998, he joined a Cardiff University Creative Writing Group. He loves to observe people, places and nature, writing in bustling cafés and the confines of his writing shed.