As We Watch

We are watching ourselves grow older as if we
were watching this happen to someone else.
It is now. It is everyday. How can this be?
It is life and this is how it occurs.

It is not merely the passage of the days and
nights, it is the greying of the hair, the growth
of the paunch, lines in the face, and random
aches from simply standing.

When I look in the mirror I recognize my face
because it is much like the face I saw in there
yesterday. How different would it be to see my
face from ten or twenty years ago look back?

These are the day and nights of a lifetime.
The journey may feel so long but it is a speck
of light among a field of endless black. I am
searching in the darkness for you as well.

We have found each other and now share
this moment together. How good it is to not
be alone. To connect, to share words, to
remind ourselves of what could yet be.

I may be older 
But my heart is
No less heavy.

On Sin

You're not a good guy 
for never having sinned
You're just a fool 
for never having lived

You can't be a fool if you've never been foolish.

I was not wise in my youth
and as I grow gray
I wonder if I am growing
any wiser now.

Common wisdom 
isn't as common
as you would think.

The Constancy of Our Substance

What I do not know could fill

almost every book in every library

from antiquity til now.


What I do not know could fill

almost every hard drive

in every computer on earth.


What I do know is very little

and fits into an area no larger

than my clenched left fist.


What I do know is valuable

and cannot be forgotten,

will be carried with me


until its weight is too much

to bear, and when that day

comes we will free each other-


uncoupled from our shared burden

our energy will change states-

become a different kind of matter.

Acceptance

It is hard for us to age


Our powers fade in a procession 


of loss. Lines cross skin


like new roads over fields. 


Eventually they become


boulevards and freeways.


Memory begins to fragment


if it is present at all.


Colors dull


no matter the prescription 


on the lenses.


This fading is a patina


gilding our lives


in measured increments.


Each prepares for the next. 


Each a necessary step


towards acceptance,


of loss,


of time, 


and ultimately-


a mutual fate


since time


immemorial.
______






Note: revised to current version on 7/7/12
2nd revision 7/16/12