"Change," 9/7/09

I find myself increasingly
alone among the crowd, of late,
who once comprised my happy state
and now share not their lives with me.

I dwell on sweetest days that never
will return, and silently I
ask these darkened halls if they know why
familiar ties must sever.

And when I find society
these days, it lies among the small,
who share with me their thoughts and all
their toys, and all the things they saw
that my eyes couldn't see.

Children are unique in that
they aren't always preoccupied
with leaving all the past behind--
because they have no past.

But everything that grown-ups do,
and all the selves that they create,
they must destroy and then remake,
and never do they think that Fate
suggests them what they choose.

I stand atop a tiny island,
watching all my past rush past;
those to whom I clung so fast
slip by and never look toward land.

Oh Change! Nature's intricacy
that's wove like a strong silken thread
or painted in bold strokes of red
in patterns we can't see!