The Perspective of Time
If I could go back in time
and speak to my teenage self,
I thought last night,
I would say to her
When you are 70,
You will say happiness is
lying half asleep at 5:00 a.m.
listening to soft, gentle
snoring on your left,
listening to a woodthrush in the distant woods
and hearing the early songs of wrens
and cardinals and towhees through four open windows
on your right,
with a yellow cat curled up at your feet.
How did the teenage you define happiness? How different is it from the above?
I don’t think my teenage self even thought of it. She would perhaps reply
“You’re nuts. I’m never going to be that old and dotty.”
This was wonderful. The feeling of immediacy of the moment, and the sound colours. The independence, too, combined with a little bit of the homely home associations. Loved the cat.