Now That I Am Old

Now that I am old

I walk in the late afternoon

and not in the morning, so

a dimming red sun is setting

at the end of a sea of green rice

in the west and not blaring

like a trumpet announcing the  

beginning of another imperial

day rising in the east.

The sharecroppers and poor,

as we do too, live on fingers 

of land that reach into this

green sea like piers.

I walk more slowly.  I try

to keep my former pace,

but I know I walk more

slowly now.

Between the empty berths

the bushes are dead-still

on my right shoulder.  

I knew them in the morning,

swelling to meet the sun,

but now they just hold

their place in the late

afternoon air.

FG 10/16/2014

The weather has changed so there are no late afternoon showers and it’s also much cooler. This is the high season in Thailand and the weather is drop-dead gorgeous.  But I usually have a beer around 4 pm, and as I have been advised to not drink, I go for a walk instead.  Three days out of five this seems to work.

I’m at a time where just holding you place counts for something.