Days of Future Passed

AI image via Deep Dream Generator

Days of Future Passed

I saw myself coming down the hillside

Silent, gliding

My older self, his time on the hill done, now bound for the work of the city

I looked carefully 

For lessons to be learned, deep and valuable

Gliding, he passed behind a clump of shrubby pines

I would meet him soon, there is only one way up the hill.

There is never just one way up the hill. 

I walk through winter fields, irrigation ditches edged with precious crystals of ice 

I leap over the stream, a trickle in late summer

I curve around the dogwood, its blossoms creamy in the spring

I court the romance of monsoon clouds, waiting, waiting for Nanda Devi to smile. 

Every way up the hill is a new way, and he found a new way down.

Sometimes, I see him in dreams, now knowing our paths will never cross

We never loop back upon ourselves, like a train chugging along a track

We soar and we spiral, we swoop and sometimes we stall

Catch a glimpse of ourselves threading through a dark valley

Or high on an autumn ridge, heading for the snows

But then we’re both gone

Left to Now

To This.