Hindsight

Rear view                            3/31/2016

If I had only seen it coming

I could have stopped it cold

And everything would be different

Aged, weathered, and old.

We want what we cannot have

And we long for what we lost

Drawn by an insatiable appetite

Back to the flame

Again and again. 

Unwitting victims of a mysterious alchemy

We are slaves to our emotions

Seldom content

And never satisfied.

Blindly lurching forward

But always glancing backwards

Dumbfounded by what we missed

The first time around.  

Some will get a second chance

But some never will

A mystery and a riddle

That no one can solve.

God gave me life

And God gave me love

But who he loves

He must teach

One way

Or another.

He woke me up

And he plucked me out

Safe inside the womb

Warm and wet.

Immersing me in an icy river

He braced me against the world

Learning the hard way
over and over again. 

Tested, and tested again

Each time that I failed

God has not given up

And I had better not either. 

In my prayers I run

And I climb up into his arms

Help me, hold me

And keep me warm

Like a baby calls his father

To love and to protect.

I could never deserve it

All of this that I know

A small but priceless treasure

I dug up in the yard.

I call out in my mind

And pray that my friends are healed

The lost remembered

And the foolish saved.

Save them

As you saved me

Turning on the light

We never knew we had. 

Almost imperceptible

And nearly forgotten

The truth inside our heart

Dormant and cold.   

Send the spark to them also

The one that you gave to me

So that they also shall know

And seek to understand. 

Bringing us all home together

Where we will yet

Laugh and share

The distant past

Becoming nothing

In a future

That is everything.