Time

Sitting high in the old pine tree

A place where I can find my real self

And enjoy the dim sunset

draping its gold

over rooftops 

I have always known 

The tree trembled

A girl climbed up 

With a face I was all too familiar with

Myself, years ago

She speaks in a voice lighter than air

bright with the light of innocence

untouched by silence

unburdened by knowing

I listened

her words spill like scattered leaves

one by one on the ground

i pick them up

turn them over in my hands

realizing

I used to love talking

I turned my head to the right

Another person is sitting there

The older version of me

silent

still

had she been here all along? 

I wanted to ask her questions

But my voices dissolved into the wind

She is gradually becoming blurry

And so is the little girl

I want to reach them and let them stay

I still got so many things I haven’t say

But my hand just go pass through them

I stop struggling

Time stops for no one

It takes and it takes and it takes

It takes our innocence

Takes away the selves we once knew

Yet, as the wind whispers

a voice – my own – breaks through

“Don't lose yourself” 

Strange

I heard my voice this time

my older self smiles

“we did not”