I Now Can See Old Age Poem by James McLain

I now can see old age and youth I see today,
a dream, no it's a veil a veil that cannot stay.
The market sells a peach, blonde of hair
that's fair, not an apple nor the pear.

Liquid water is the air, the air I need to breath,
when as a child I could not see.
The wind the moving leaves surrounded
by the trees, I am no more.

All the land is now reclaimed and built upon,
and painted shows the mind inside each home.
Crossing from one side there is no bridge,
without a bridge I've reached the other side.

Unlike the rest a burning hole inside my chest,
was not a vice.
Though not deaf, I hear the young girl's all that say,
look, be he bald or grey.

I have over heard and to them say, I thought my youth
was here to stay!
My hands once young and yes my fingers were then long,
but are no more.

How much longer can he live the way he does,
he lives without a woman all alone.
They will come when I am gone but not yet done,
and they will come to take what I in turn have left behind.

Looking down at what I see,
I see that time it has not stopped though it moves
right past the spot where I once stood.
And I now see their youth as once like mine it melts away.



Copyright © James McLain | Year Posted 2017