Another Life

I looked at him and saw a man full of endless energy and brimming with pride. I thought back to a time when I was him and softly under my breath sighed.

I began to recount to him the days of my past. For I remember those days when at his age, that time would forever last.

Oh the dreams I once had from so long ago, yes oh yes, it was way back then. I talked of hunting and fishing and even getting fooled on a date with identical twins.

It was then as I was recalling the days of old that I stopped mid sentence as the reality of my life took hold. He looked at me as to finish my tale. My heart at that very moment skipped a beat or two and my complexion grew pale.

“What?’ he said.

“Oh nothing.' I replied. ‘It's just.. it's just…”

'Just what?” he said.

I then continued on and simply said. That was like a hundred years ago, it was like I was remembering someone else's life. It was as if what I had just recounted was a moment when days would never end, days without any worries or strife.

Now when I look at my reflection and my reflection looks back at me, I'll ask myself who is that for is certainly is not who I used to be.

Now as I pen this sitting on my backyards empty swing, I ask of myself, was what I had told him a figment of my imagination or some sort of a faraway dream?

My hair once dark and full is now thinning . My face carries with it more creases and lines. I have issues with my health that I once thought only belonged to someone else.

I surely now think that the memories I have belonged to someone else in a far away time. For now I'm not of him, the young man who once was... I am only me. In Another Life…

J. Allen Wilson ©
8/17/2017