I wonder who you are now...
I wonder if time has hoisted you up on its brutish shoulders,
Whisked you off down some familiar road
Giving you little choice in the path you must follow.
I wonder if you can just shut your eyes...
You've viewed all this scenery before.
Is it pleasant and familiar, the sort of comforting vision
That meets one's glance when returning home after a very long time?
Or is it a rapid fire of uncomfortable sidelong glances,
So that the greatest relief is turning momentarily away?
Are you full of hope and happiness?
Or have you invented those things, as I have,
In an effort to fill some phantom hole
That only grows bigger each time I turn away from it?


©1998 Gail Von Schlichting


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