Myself as unconscious and young
In a souvlaki dive
Debating philosophies
Tried on for size
Because we didn't need
For them to mean
Anything but what we felt
At that moment
Where we glowed
In ephemeral candescence --
With the songs, the lines,
The gestalt of the time,
Which we knew.
If I had a regret
It would be in not saying, then,
When there was still a chance,
That I would remember this,
And even the meal,
Which we laughed at,
As maybe the best I would ever have.
It would have filled the instant
With fellowship
And its twin, ridicule,
But such gestures
Are quickly forgotten,
And this one would blend into
Impressions from long ago:
The energy my friends had,
Vague and vivid,
The way distant time
And just yesterday converge.
If I had taken one step away
Into awareness
It could have changed everything,
Like saying that thing
Before someone died
Or knowing the last time
You'd gaze on a sight.
Life from then on
Would be observed
Not merely lived and died.
