There was a time
before mine ...
They lived and loved
and laughed and sang
and fought and sought the answer.
Sometimes they’d win, sometimes they’d lose.
Sometimes they thought they’d found it.
Sometimes they had.
But that was all in the before.
I ran my own short race,
and kept the pace, and sometimes even made it,
and fewer times I gave a careless nod
to those who’d run before.
Until I stopped for breath
and thought of how
they’d lived and loved
and laughed and sung
and fought and sought the answer.
They merit more of my attention now.
Not my devotion — no, they are no greater and no less.
But much attention, yes.
I give it to them gladly,
and feel I am finally learning to learn.
And with another cycle,
those who must follow will maybe stop some time and do the same,
and read and listen and remember them,
and also me,
and how I lived and loved ...
