Lost in Time

*

She said, It's the quiet people who make me nervous.

And I declined to comment,

so that her words became a fluttering bird with no place to land.

I was remembering summer nights when I was a school kid

staying out late until it was barely light enough

to see my fellow cub scouts.

Thinking about the perfect arc of a football under moonlight,

and how I knew little of the adult world back then,

having yet to deal with its labyrinth complexities.

Now I miss the pleasure of finding earwigs hidden under rocks

and travelling everywhere at light speed.

I suppose growing up is an exercise 

in getting over tiny disappointments 

like discovering that the ability to climb trees

is a much undervalued skill in this world.

And suddenly you blinked me back to the present moment,

where multiple futures 

beckoned us towards them

*