Big kids
Big Kids
They’re the ones you used to envy –
they could stay up late, and you –
you still took naps, couldn’t ride your bike
down to the park alone, or paddle out on the lake.
Then they had boyfriends, girlfriends, cars,
they went off to college or to war –
while we stayed home, stuck in school.
Now we’re the ones who still climb up stairs
still can drive, still can write a check;
they seem bent and frail now, snowy-haired,
smiles perhaps confused, slowing down and down –
They were first and we were last;
our turn now to lead awhile, then follow,
tottering too, towards the final mile.
Haj
Mistywood
15.XII.MMV.