When.....

When I look at an old woman's face, I instantly remember my grandmother, And remember how I used to touch Her soft skin and tried to straighten The wrinkled folds and the jutted veins, As she watched me do this and smiled. When I see an old couple walk along, Hand in hand, pausing here and there, I feel like joining them, listen to them, Accompany them up to a segment or two, And patiently hear their retrieved stories Of wisdom and experience gained from life. But when I look at a couple of lovebirds, I feel no desire of playing a goose berry, As they are usually so deeply absorbed, To be oblivious to the passage of time. To them, I only wish in solemn solitude May their stream of love never run dry. When I look at the happy children at play, Boisterously frolicking here and there, I wish to join them, not as what I am now, But as a child that I was, fifty years yore. Unaware they are, of what they will miss, Golden childhood moments, a lifetime bliss. When I look at a new baby, just born, Hardly a few hours old, yet they yawn, Look with open eyes at their labored mom, Then I remember my happiest moments, The time when my first son was born. He too stared at his mother, with a yawn.