Daily Poem Entries

The Day Near Ended

The Day Near Ended

Morning

I always wanted
to be older,
the grey hair sprouting
from the timeless mind,
and wisdom pouring from my pen
in accomplished ease,
the years
piling up in the corner
to be picked over
with a jaundiced eye,
your gathered experience
selecting and rejecting
with expert insight,
and practice allowing
the words to flow upon the page.

Evening

And now you think me too far gone to remember?
It’s short term memory I’m supposed to lose,
not tales of long ago and dreams unbound,
though you weren’t wrong and some facility
belongs in these gnarled old fingers, this tired
brain. You have your wish and I am older than
imagination could have dreamed with all
that signifies in painful mornings when the bones
protest, and aches in places you never knew,
some the mortgage for the things you did,
still unpaid and interest mounting as the days
grow short. Yet I’ll not blame you and I regret nothing,
every day and every deed being fodder for reflection,
and so I fill the hours with thoughts and tales,
stories of the ages gone, with dreams of times
to come, playing in God’s waiting room,
closer, my God, to Thee, just as you wished.

Line count: The Day Near Ended - 32
Morning - 15
Evening - 17
Free verse
For The Daily Poem, 11.07.21 (Second Place)
Prompt: INTROSPECTION IN TWO PARTS
Write a 9-15 line poem to your older self from your younger self about the kind of person you did or didn't want to be when you grew up.
THEN
Write an 11-20 line poem response from your older self to your younger self about the challenges you faced that shaped who you are today.
Did you meet your younger self's expectations?