Two poems

Two poems from recent years:

Music

I wish I was
what I used to be,
but I never really was;
I wish I could do
what I used to do,
but never really did;
I wish I could have
what I used to have,
but never really had.

and the band played on.

- Bonita, California
- April 5, 2009


lunch with a young woman

he sat at the table waiting,
recognizing he was old;
she was a friend, associate
who would join him
for lunch, nothing more.
then,
they talked through the meal
of aspirations: career, personal.
With all things considered,
their discussion was
amazingly forthright;

he was pleased her life was
going so well;
he was pleased his life was
going so well.
yet,
he had a longing to be
what he thought he had been
many years ago
(was it an illusion?)

she left for good things,
he left for old things,
not bad, just worn around the edges;
he realized, once again,
he was older than he thought,
a grandfather, settling into age
like a hen into her nest,
and
he had another daughter
because the world as well as
the woman who sat across from him
had recognized
he was an old man.

– Bonita, California
- March 4, 2008