How quickly it passed, that immortality

Just an illusion now but a reality then, a

Place eternal where nothing mattered but

Everything had purpose, fleeting summer

Days that went on and on but never lasted

When the stars came out to wink at fireflies.

Ah, but those nights lingered too, crickets

Playing out of tune but keeping time just

The same, though I didn’t know it then and

Wish I could forget it now, counterpoint

To a distant ticking that was lost beneath the

Bittersweet regard of my own beating heart.

Except that I never regarded such things, only

Knew that I was alive beneath those

Stars, the regard I speak of written by a man

Caught in the romance of childhood, that

Half-remembered dream of twelve-years-old

Just an abstract recollection to me now.

So forgive me, please, if I choose to wander

There, even for a little while longer, because what

I do recall is indeed bittersweet, however elusive

Those thoughts may be, at least until I close my

Eyes, look inward to find whatever remains like

A seeker of ancient artifacts without the proper tools.

The smell of freshly mown grass, I remember this.

The magical sound of playing cards in bicycle

Spokes, wind in my face, racing my shadow to

The ice cream stand and a double-dip cone on a

Huffy that had seen better days, I remember this.

The pretty girl who lived down my street…

I can bear to write no more, but will

Hold it close because what I was has made

Me what I am, and like that empty wind

I also covet what is left behind, the leaf

I chase but a single page in a book I

Once thought would never be completed.

END

“Covet (Redeux)”