How Long Can We Be Lucky?

 

Two decades pass.  I meet a college friend

and catch up on the news I’ve missed.  A child

was born, I knew that but adventures wild

and strange have passed in letters gone unsent,

 

unthought, in fact.  And still it’s like we’re young

again.  Were strangers once, but something grew

and now remains despite the years that flew

between.  And if we weren’t so tired, the sun

 

might rise on us.  But passing years have tolled

and children too; we’re aged and creaking now.

Diseases grim, and close escapes she tells.  Cold

 

shivers walk my spine.  She may be bold –

they both survived.  I fear I don’t know how

I will, if he should leave me when I’m old.

 

*****

 

7/9/13