-- A Life Unimagined -–

John Herlihy

I have spent years waiting,

Waiting for my life imagined.

My life has spent years baiting,

With a life I never fathomed.

My childhood years laid bare,

My dreams the worse for wear.

I couldn’t get older quick enough,

Not sure I be made of the right stuff.

Raw adolescence set me on fire,

Drawn by the pull of my body’s desire.

I was just a dumb kid back then,

Imagining things where and when.

The older I get, the more that I see,

Just trying to be who I was meant to be.

To wake up, raise myself up from the floor,

To appreciate the life I have, and more.

In middle age, my life not the same,

As the life imagined without all the pain.

Sleeping alone always makes me remember,

All those unimagined moments most tender.

In old age, no more wild imagining,

Just a breeze, on a soft wind, drifting.

The rush of life’s bloom slowly wilting,

Thru the flowing sand of days, sifting.

Now I wonder about death imagined,

A closed door opened as the devil grinned.

Thru the crack of light, I did peek,

Saw all life’s shadows I never did seek.

My imagined life already passed by,

Friends and events slipped away on the sly.

The frayed edges of memory singed,

To make room for a life unimagined.

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(c) John Herlihy 10 December 2018