Childhood Visions and Age Old Dreams

(The Bible: Joel 2-28, Acts 2 -16,17)

I was crying, for my friend had died when she and I were five.
Mother told me life often is sad, but with age I would realise
Nature’s plan is that all life on Earth will, with time, grow and thrive,
and devised in this plan is that each form of life also dies.
With my chin thrust well out, and my head held erect,
I stood shouting defiance, through tears, to reject
any plans for my own demise.


But observing the sequence of life has shown me,
wistful dreaming of times long ago many old people do,
is as common to age as youth’s visions of times yet to be.
I recall matchbox boats and their pipe-cleaner passengers, who
were sent racing down gutters fast-flowing by rain.
They sailed over a waterfall, down into the drain,
and forever were lost to our view.


As I aged, I found laughter dispelled gloomy thoughts of mortality,
and my smiles could help others ignore what such visions imply.
Years of practice empowered me to smile with alacrity,
as I once, as a vain little girl, smiled at all passers-by,
and in shop-windows too. People smile back at me, it is true.
So while grave faces brighten when I’m passing through,
I shall strive to retain my smile.