The Old Guard

maybe all of this

all this time

looking back

I see

all of it

wasn’t so bad

my head says

it makes the rules

and I see flowers in the past

grown over rubble

sprouting news scents

that beckon the old guard

and feel so

so old

and so “home”

and I don’t fear that regret in me

it’s gone now

like everything

and that’s ok

I will cry with you

give me your shoulder

we can fall into that ancient world together

and see all our friends again

their songs will play once more

into that reverse beyond

perpetual memoriam

I will not forget

what I felt

across that lovely pond of time

made sweet by itself

now an ocean

deep

deeper

deepest