“I think you missed a chance today, a shame,
An easy mistake to make young man. Your eyes happened upon me,
A glance, for to you I have no worth
A decrepit old man, hunched and broken sitting on a park bench.
But I saw you. I was you.
Long before your parents entered this world we share.
I can relate to your youthful vigour for my mind still retains the boisterousness of that youth.
My knees, long since replaced by metal allow each faltering step I make, to be laced with pain.
A pain echoed in my heart for parents, friends and siblings who have long since gone.
But these knees did once more than creak, they propelled me to sporting achievements on fields that no longer stand,
Replaced by the concrete avenues you now call home.
Feats of strength I remember still, and how, when my skin did not sag but wrapped around taut sinews and muscles honed like tempered steel.
My eyes have clouded over, I no longer read as I once did, for learning, for pleasure, for inspiration, for the sake of reading.
They served me well, but with eighty nine years of life now lived, I shut my eyes and every word, every moment is still crystal clear to me.
The sickening irony that my memories won’t desert me, and if they did, I would not know.
When I speak my voice will tremble, my chin wobbling in a grotesque parody of the days I held it high and spoke with the voice of a King.
A hat stands on my head for no other reason than to keep my head warm.
Where once grew curls of lustre now stand just wisps of grey silk, as thin and as fragile as the strand of life I still cling too.
Maybe you will never realise until on this bench you sit and gain epiphany, that I was once was you young man and one day you will be me.”
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