Thirsty Memories

age affords us the mixed blessing of memories

a road of many curves and inclines, declining
into a valley of short streets and dirt paths...
from the birth of my brother and daughter to
my divorce and relocation to the west...
my way was marked with disappointments
and misrepresentations that opened doors to
an enlightened growth of self-awareness...
there were joys and pleasures found in an
Arabian desert and the illulsions brought
about isolation and loneliness...  lovers came
and went  - no soul mates ever found...
a crack in the mind, leads us to remember
painful and joyous...
                   vivid and sparce....
                                       imagined or real...
through the sea oats we see the ocean and
the dune behind which we made love...
through the window we see the curb on 
which we sat drinking cherry brandy in Cairo;
the blue nude of picasso you painted for me
and the naval decks on which I walked at sea...
child birth and grown up abandonments clouds
judgement and recollections of happiness;
fifty years or more denotes a friend not just
those who come and go, pretending to care,
benefitting from the process..  stepping into
the crowd when there is no crowd, having
thought distorting photographs, lying in a box,
waiting to be discovered and discussed...
we are the ones there but we have changed
and no longer are who we were...  fat or thin,
tall or small, we are of different opinions now;
age brings this to the forefront as memories
fade into glimpses of the past, floating on
clouds of thoughtlessness, looking for an urn
in which to desposit the ashes of lost years.

April 14, 2023