Not Yet

Lost beauty of fallen days, where did you go? Grace of the disappearing past Can it really be we can never return Your wistful face holds a reflection Through the window glass at me Enticing me to come outside, have a look Perhaps find again some vision I could recognize: A bench, or a bird bath; a person From the distant past, or a little child man or woman I want to go and sit in the late sunset, beside you Watch the clouds form shapes, in our mutual reverie Find unusual birds to talk about, on their migrations Even the silence blessed us then; saying nothing Hanging in stillness, a huge gift; familiarity of combined years Our bodies molecules intermingled from long association Being master of all I survey doesn't satisfy Because the ones I most would have shared it with Have gone away by now Blown away like fall leaves, somewhere too far to travel yet Or else sprouted wings like a chrysalis To fly where I've never been, even in my imagination We never suspect these are the good old days Until they have already vanished; gone forever Why did we think they would never end And in the future, I know someone will think of me, and sigh And stand long before a window, in silence, and watch, listen and wait Wish fervently, for the way things used to be Even if just for a day, an hour, one single shining moment Of blissful peace: but then I have to smile, at that thought Because they can't know it yet.