By SHELIA BLAND
Confronted with the realization that our dreams did not come to pass,
We who raised our children with such confidence.
Sure of the difference they’d make in the future.
Sure that we knew what they’d need for the future.
We look up to discover
That the future looks just like the present—
The future that is now is no different
Than the present that was then.
And we are too tired to go on fighting,
Too tired, and too wise to believe again
In a future, future
That can be different from the present, present.
We experience a changing of the guard.
We see in our children’s eyes, our dreams of yesterday.
We see in our children’s limbs, our strength of yesterday.
We see in our children’s hearts, our enthusiasm of yesterday.
A changing of the guard.
Our selves replaced.
The same dreams re-hatched.
We experience despair perhaps–
A feeling of uselessness —
Of being out of step.
We experience both trauma and tragedy.
We fail to see it is just the Middle Ages—
Being ever experienced
As it has always been experienced.
As puberty is just a phase—
So, are the Middle Ages—
When we are sixties,
We will look back upon them
As the silly misconceptions of youth—
As we of the Middle Ages now look back
upon the ages of puberty as
the silly misconceptions of youth.
We, of the Middle Ages.
Shelia Bland lives in Midtown Phillips. She has been writing most of her life to help herself understand the experiences and people in her shared world.
