Another Place
By John Herlihy

As I fall into the deep well of sleep’s oblivion,
I long for another place that emerges in dreams.
A place as all-encompassing as the celestial meridian,
Where the meridian hour ever flows in fluid streams.

Upon awakening, I find myself in familiar space,
Once again arisen from the depths of slumber.
The morning light shines forth its familiar face,
My life returns again in a way that I remember.

Childhood forms the backcloth of another time and age,
When love is there to be found in every warm embrace.
Meeting things for the first time found on the first page,
Every smile, frown and tear found on the loving infant face.

Would anyone begrudge me if I now think of my youth,
Tip-toeing through brambles avoiding the prickly thorn.
I made mistakes stirring raw sensations of harsh vermouth.
As I now look back, whole segments of life appear fully torn.

Adulthood brings responsibility, but has its own charm;
It is a place of achievement; even winter offers cozy cold.
We think we can live forever; there is no sense of alarm;
A place that desires no other, no wish to be young or old.

As I settle comfortably into the wizardry of my old age,
Everything has the feeling of happening one last time,
Recreating those final emotions found on the last page,
Bidding good-bye as I seize the rope for the final climb.

At every stage of life, I found myself in another place,
Sometimes with a sense of hardness, sometimes softer.
The stages of life’s evolution calls for their own space,
Wherein we experience what our destiny has to offer.

Now, what do I have left but a sense of loss and longing;
I have returned to these earlier places feeling melancholy.
Old age can be a lonely place with little sense of belonging;
I now dream of another place, safe, secure, even a little jolly.