We meet again after twenty plus years
A grand viewing of impetuous portraits
Paintings saved from a lost empire
Much older than our own
I once imagined I might woo them
But imagination can get weak on facts
They were shrewd and ignored some truths
Yet never the important ones
Way back seduced by charm and looks
I have to laugh; I am no longer?
They look good; smile alluringly
Parade me through their passing years
One has a son at her old college
Happy, carefree, adoring his future
She glows in his remembered light
Today she’s head of major committees
Organizations I can’t quite place
Yet critical; the unappreciated foundation
That silent base that keeps the wheels rolling
The other remains more elusive
Speaking vaguely of fortunate wanderings
But if you don’t already know her story
You really can’t be told
In past days I thought it lack of nerve
Insufficient guts to ask them out
Now see what they immediately grasped
I could not offer club nor country house
Excellent parties and shimmering friends
Which they knew quickly there and then
Worse my work lacked cash and glamor:
The old, the sick, the not yet dead
Useful, tolerable, but insufficient
As I remain to this day
Through them I see my younger self
So foolish, so romantic
Still naive, yet
How could I ever imagine
Planets that merely orbit each other
Might someday close and connect?
Of course we promise to keep in touch
Like many old promises it will stay unfulfilled
Far more than the next twenty years