“We are all, in the course of a lifetime, a half dozen different people, bound together by memories of the same childhood.”
—Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
age & aging
Binding years
“The knowledge of my years is ever with me, a sort of binding torment, like an armhole that is
—Kate Trimble Sharber, At the Age of Eve, 1911
Now, in a Later Spring
Once, long ago, I heard an old man say,
“Two pounds of sorrow is the price you pay
For every pound of bliss.”
But I was young and such a reckoning
Seemed far too steep; now, in a later spring,
I’d gladly offer far, far more than this.
—Alice Mackenzie Swaim, “Now, in a Later Spring,” Crickets Are Crying Autumn, 1960
Forever…
as inevitable as
aging and taxes —
death is no longer
the surety it was
Reeling
fifty hit me
a ton of bricks
insult to injury
for some body
still on the floor
under the anvil
of forty-nine
The life of every man
“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to
—J. M. Barrie, The Little Minister, 1891
Movie review
good luck to you, leo grande
emma thompson — you
are my new hero
2024
I know a guy.
Angry. Festering
in disappointment
of the world
and of himself.
A little depressed.
Sick of doing
the same. freaking.
thing. every day.
Wondering where
his lost youth went.
Hungering to replace
the comfort and
all the good things
in his life that
have gone away.
But resolutely
continuing on
doing his duty.
Living with the pain.
Loving while he can.
Taking any little
laugh he can find.
Then doing it all
over again. Perhaps
you know him too.
Perhaps we all do
— inside.
Ember
days in winter
fall so short —
as the sun sets
loneliness rises
Daze in a rut
At a certain point, some of us just sit down and watch the rest of our lives
Begrudge
don’t disdain the youth their ideals
or their puppy love head-over-heels
eventually they will learn and settle
inevitable retrogress — lover & rebel
Paying the price
Wisdom is expensive — paid in life and years.
Fallen youth
my body’s lifelong dance with gravity
has turned to wrestling match