THINGS WE HAVE LOST

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John Herlihy

No real accounting for the things we have lost,

Wrapped in winter chill and laced in white frost.

Things we take for granted do suddenly disappear,

Things we so highly value that are no longer near.

Surprising how so many lost things stick around,

Just stuck in our memories as things newly found.

Joy of infancy and childhood, the freedom of youth,

Our inborn innocence and our attachment to truth.

An imaginary friend or my first love, now left behind,

Familiar habits once treasured have now left my mind.

My grown children are still near me but the child is lost,

The cuddles, the sweet laughter and love gone at cost.

Then there is the love lost that can never be re-found,

The yearning, love, and fire now buried in the ground.

Such emotion may come and go but will never fully die,

When we remember what we lost, we only utter a sigh.

Things we once knew completely, we don’t know anymore,

Where the green grass in winter, sounds creak in the floor.

Even the knowing turned unknowing, enfolded in the mist,

What once stirred our hearts, now as strangers in our midst.

Why, a whole life has passed by to appear only as vanished;

What I loved has gone away, by an invisible hand banished.

Still lurking in the dark only vestiges of goblins and ghosts,

That walk through the night of my mind as newfound hosts.

Things that made us feel enriched, their loss leaves us poor,

Things we considered to be second nature, no longer sure.

Yet the possibility still remains: what is lost might be found;

Hope alights on our extended hand as a butterfly profound

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(c) John Herlihy 26 February 2020