The town I loved has changed: the Market Square
Once guarded by a patient, friendly bear
The town's protector
Today stands empty. Yet, all around
Are streets: torn, ravished. Even the very ground
This proud town's people walk upon
Is ugly, rough, uneven.
The bear - reluctantly, methinks - has ceded place
To steel-and-concrete plumbing. Water plays
The bear, perforce, may only watch
Powerless,shunted into an obscure, uncomfortable corner

Yet children love him still, pet his solid shoulders
Whisper secrets, share with him their ice creams
Ask older sibling, parents, grandparents
To tell tales of wise Bruin as they clamber on his back
Or of Nykøbing town itself, seven hundred years of history passed
But vibrant still
The poet's words, evocative and wild
Truly this is "The Town I Loved as a Child"
My heart still yearns
One day - one day soon
I will return