Reversals

When I was young
My life was filled with play
A body flexible and strong
Bending to the shape
Imagination found in far off lands
But inside this youthful casing
An inflexible rod-like view of life
Expectation with how things should be
Peopled with the simple
Solutions only inexperience
Insists reality must comprise.

Now that many years
Have passed through my time
I cannot bend so easily without
Stiffness taking liberty with joints
Inside my mind
The stern rod of expectations
Has given way to softer thoughts
Formed by the drying winds
Remorse and failure
Trampled by the endless foibles
Inhabiting these common shores
People met along this way
Force me to hidden truths that
Make me see beyond these
Constraints of time
Love has softened my hard edges
Made my critical eye less sharp.

Irene once said
No one believes in Jesus anymore,
I am forced to think
Do they know He believes in them?