“How old are you?”
Never mind
This means nothing at all
Why don’t you tell me how many summers you’ve danced until dawn?
How many lightning bugs you’ve confused with the stars up above?
How many love songs did you sing to the moon alone?
How many winters you’ve seen
Or was life always this cold?
Tell me how long it was before spring woke you up and you bloomed like a rose?
How many vines did you see autumn paint gold?
And did you lay quietly as the earth slowly birthed sweet corn
Just so you’d listen to elegant crows
Recite poetry to the ragged scarecrow?
How long did your storms last?
Did they break you in half?
How long did you wander in fogs with no path?
Did you grow roots like a tree?
Did you face off with the winds?
Or did you catch them and made them your wings?
Did you learn how to fly?
Or did you fall like a cold stone out of the sky?
How long did you mourn those whom you have loved?
How long did you love those you have lost?
How long did you linger in the moments of joy?
How long did you cry when you first lost your favourite toy?
Have you had a life full of meaning?
Do you know what it is?
Do you know where you’re going?
Or are you one with the breeze?
The clock strikes midnight
And it means nothing at all
Just a point on the circumference
Of an old clock on the wall
Did you figure out what the meaning of time is
If — in the blink of an eye — a moment of sadness
Or a moment of joy
Can transform your whole soul
And make you feel as young as a dew drop
In a garden in June
Or as grey and indifferent
As the deep cold on the dark side of the moon?
How old are you now?
Tell me
What do you know?
