I Have Seen Both Sides of Life
Another of my reflective poems, as I look back on life, more serious than “Once Upon a Time in Ballinasloe“: more along the lines of “Portrait of the Poet as a Not So Young Man“… these poems get easier to write as we get older!
I have seen both sides of life
I saw youth in now distant days
Now into mid life I settle
My hair a thousand whites and greys.
I saw in youth good health
Others ailing I could not understand
Unsure were they feigning or was it real
Still, bemused, Id lend a hand.
Now I am the one who gets up stiff
Crippled every so often with back pains
Old age, early arrived and long to stay
Where only the memories of litheness remains.
I write tonight melancholic verse
In these verses of retrospection
Thoughts that cross the mind like never before
Life’s meaning and such reflection.
It begins now they say is true
For you take life as fate does give
Make the most of it, appreciate it
So you truly start to live.
I have seen both sides of life
Is there a third left to come?
I lay down my pen and set to sleep
Dust of my lap each crumb.