And Then.. (1986) Poem by Laurence de B Anderson

Come run then, if you don't look back,
and remember the backs of tricking years;
so long, good years
and back-lit, half-remembered face
(by the lake a pony and a tree in flower)
Come look, (but don't look back)
and then, and then, a child with a fish,
stands in the water which still laps,
though the child is dead, grown old,
and says:
Come! Look back if you don't go out,
and keep the pollen on your tongue.