Apparently, a poem still sometimes falls out of me. What can I say? Early December has been rough.
I’m not going to record this piece right now, but I’ll have the audio version on (probably) the next poetry album – which is in progress, if not coming together as quickly as I want it to. I should start recording in the next week or so, so I guess maybe early 2017 if my attention span holds.
I Should Have Noticed Then
I should have noticed then
That it was not age that had conquered you
That the slump of your shoulders was a sign
That your need to be near was a sign
I should have realized sooner
That getting older and being crushed
By the weight of time are not the same.
That things sometimes enter our hearts slowly,
With infinite care,
And don’t leave even once they’ve left a scar.
I should have known all along
That there is no set frame of reference,
No guarantee that we still have time,
But I just kept thinking ‘not yet’ and ‘too soon’
Like thinking them could make mockery
Of all the signs that I couldn’t see for what they were
When it mattered,
And couldn’t write off when the bigger picture
fell around me like a black veil
removing distractions from view
until all I could see were the little things
That I should have noticed then.
