I thought I would be different today
I expected midnight this morning would have wrought a change
In me like Cinderella's coach that turned into a wrinkled pumpkin
Leaving her to walk home from the ball.

But that didn't happen.

Midnight struck this morning and the gentle heart and
Glowing soul who lies beside me through every lonely night
Reached back, pulled my face close to hers and said,
"Happy birthday, I love you".
Then she kissed me and I was young all over again.

He was a good kid once,
All smiles and personality that set him apart.
"A pleasure", his teachers said;
"A funny boy, but so smart"!
He was first among his friends and loved by family in those days.

But those days pass and life wears you down.

Romances failed him, or vice versa,
The big leagues never called,
And work was never interesting, just work.

Always his escape from what should have been was in the ****
    Which got inside his head and changed him.

Frustration twisted him as years passed and dreams dimmed;
Every change was a loss he took as something stolen.
He didn't see he gave away what he lost,
        So he wanted revenge on us because we couldn't help him.

His actions hurt us,  but not how he thought it would,
        We suffered to see him become the God who banished himself To the hell of his anger where the Satan he became
        Keeps him locked away in lonely frustration.

He was a good kid once,
All smiles and personality that set him apart.
"A pleasure", his teachers said;
"A funny boy, but so smart"!
He was first among his friends and loved by family in those days.

Now he's gone and can't find his way back.

And I miss him.

I live in the corners now where the light is a reflection
and the shadows are real:

The comforting shadows of what was and the
painful shadows of what was expected.

My corner is crowded with transients, like me, pulled
slowly or fast, into the farthest nooks where they are
finally lost to the ephemeral light of here and now.  

It's hard to remember some of them, glad they are gone in fact;
Others are seared in my consciousness, smiling there as when
we shared the light that seemed everlasting as the sun.

But not even the sun is forever.

So I look for something beyond the nooks where my friends
and loves and dreams have gone.

I will tell you, who are still in the light, truly from the shadows
of the corner: only love and hope and Love will mean anything
when you reach this place.

And you will be here too soon.

They all lie together now,
Those who hate and the ones they hated.
The short and tall, rich and poor
Ones who worked and those who lazed away their lives...

They all sleep together, equals here, even though some have massive
stones to mark their passing, others just flat bricks
with a weather worn name

And when they wake in some other place
this will have been a bad dream they shared.

There is a baby here resting in his mother's arms as she stands in a long line
Of people waiting to be fed.  The mother looks like a child herself;
The burden of the baby seems too much for her-but she knows he is not
As she sways and nuzzles
Him for comfort in a place full of strangers.
He looks at me, an old man in the corner smiling at him, and
Wishing for things long gone and time spent foolishly

Then he turns away to the comfort of his mother's powerful arms,
Safe for now in a moment fading quickly to a time when he
May be an old man in a corner wishing.

The big clouds came back today,
Rolling up over the western horizon in full sail.
Fleets of them.  An Armada reconnoitering in force
For General Winter, who is in the rear waiting for
The campaign season to attack.

Softly they sail on winds that brought the hummingbirds
Then turned cool as the days shortened and the sun more scarce.

I cannot turn away though I know what is coming as we all know.
I find I no longer care that it comes for me.
I spent my spring unheeding and my summer foolishly
But I have always loved the autumn, which is fading into
Memories I shall carry into the cold winter I cannot escape.

I wonder will I have them there or if there is anything at all.

If you can read this or hear it or ever knew it existed, I still love you.

No matter what may have passed or where we may be
or if I am gone, I still love you.

If the stars are still burning or if they have burned
themselves out and all that is left is emptiness, I still love you.

Only truth transcends and survives the fiction we call reality.
The truth between us is, and will always be,

I still love you.