1456

Unlike Jean Valjean I'm not so sure

And seventy years on things have not come clearer.

Looking back, I hope to see a path

Which has led on, inevitably nearer

To eternal truths, real insight and a sense

Of contentment, while doubts become far rarer.

But actually my mind is as confused

As it was at fourteen when I thought

That teenage years would pass and adulthood

Would bring the wisdom which was caught

Simply by getting older; yet today

I ponder why my life still seems so fraught.

I don't know who I am, but at least

I know who you are - and that brings me peace.

Brian Hick May 2015

©copyright Sally Hick 28.4.26

 1371

Cider with Rosie?

Was there a moment in my past

A tipping point when I slipped from one life

To another?

A day with Cousin Claude

Stands out,

But what else, in all those teenage years

Still glows?

If anything?

I hit a blank, and for all the days

Of school and friendship

A blandness of normality extends

Unnoticed, unrecalled.

Stuff happened but my future seemed to stick

At fourteen

And I remained that age until my forties -

Still do in times of stress - 

For even now close to my seventies

The fears and subtle put-downs of my teens

Return to trouble even waking dreams.

Brian Hick August 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 20.825

 1084

What am I going to be

When I grow up?

Maybe at sixty-six

It's too late to ask?

Brian Hick January 2012

 1079

What now? The years lie open and the days

That have been filled with work and purpose wait

As I stare blankly at this empty page.

What now?

Can I find a way to live which might abate

The stress which comes with leisure and the rage

Rising from fruitless empty hours, which Fate -

Oblivious to my longing to engage -

Has forced on me, as if she would berate

My impudence for living to this age?

What now?

Brian Hick December 2011

©copyright Sally Hick 3.1.24