DAWNING

‘Silly old fool’, someone
Shouts in your wake
And in the brilliantly-lit
Cube of time ‘old’ is dangled
Before your eyes

And won’t go away

She called you old! And
In the instant it takes you
To turn around and see
The solitary young woman
Bend down to retrieve her parcel
It dawns on you that you are
Nearer the end than the beginning

Much nearer

It comes, not creeping in the dark,
But galloping unstoppably
Over the horizon
And you never see it

Silly old fool